Kaltrina Krasniqi

Kaltrina Krasniqi (born 1981) is a Kosovan film director best known for her 2021 film Vera Dreams of the Sea, which debuted at the 78th Venice International Film Festival. Krasniqi won the Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award for her work on the film.

Early life Kaltrina Krasniqi was born in 1981 in Pristina and was one of two sisters. Her mother mainly raised her after her parents divorced when she was six. Krasniqi studied film directing at the University of Pristina, becoming one of the first women to graduate from that program. She also studied at the University of California, Los Angeles and in Copenhagen.

Career In 2010, she was hired as a fixer on Birgitte Stærmose's Out of Love while it was being filmed in Kosovo. The film entered pre-production in 2016 with principal photography slated to start in early 2017. The film won two awards at the festival and received special recognition from the Thessaloniki Festival of Greek Cinema jury. Krasniqi won the Gothenburg Film Festival Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award for the film.

In 2026, she began shooting in Pristina on her second feature film Zbardje (Whitening), which was again written by Doruntina Basha. The film was supported with a grant of €60,000 from the International Film Festival's Hubert Bals Fund.

Personal life Krasniqi is married to musician and actor Genc Salihu. They have one daughter and have co-founded a bookshop together in Pristina.