Maja Weiss was born in 1965 in Slovenia. She graduated from the Ljubljana Film Academy AGRFT. She is the first Slovenian female film director to direct a full-length fiction film for cinema, titled Guardian of the Frontier. Her film received several awards, including the Manfred Salzgeber Award for the most innovative European film at the 2002 Berlinale (Panorama) and a nomination for European Discovery at the 2002 European Film Awards (EFA).

Maja Weiss' extensive filmography includes over 40 films screened at more than 150 festivals worldwide. She is also recognized as one of the most prominent Slovenian documentary filmmakers. Her documentaries have been honored at various prestigious film festivals, including DOK Leipzig and IDFA (nomination), Durban, Zaragoza, Rotterdam, Krakow, and Telluride.

In 2020, she was presented with a lifetime achievement award for her contributions to documentaries at the DocuDok Maribor Documentary Film Festival. His film Child in Time (2004) was nominated for the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival. It was selected at IFFR 2023.