Maria Plyta (26 November 1915 - 4 March 2006) was a Greek film director, prose writer, playwright and journalist. She was the first female director in Greece and is known for the films The Engagements (1950), The Baptist (1952) and The Lustrakos (1962), which achieved great commercial success. Plyta is considered one of the most important personalities of early post-war cinema, as, along with other directors, she defined the cinematic language of the time. She also wrote novels and plays, and worked for several years in newspapers and magazines. Αlthough Plyta was the first Greek woman director, with a filmography of 17 films in 20 years (1950 – 1970), to this day, she remains underrated, despite the fact that her films were an important part of the history of Greek cinema in the 1950s and 1960s.