Elmar Imanov was born in 1985 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Since 1998 he has lived in Cologne, Germany. After several internships in feature films in Germany and Azerbaijan, he studied film directing at the ifs international film school in Cologne. His graduation film The Swing of the Coffin Maker (2012) was shown at more than 120 film festivals and won 41 awards worldwide, including the Golden Dinosaur qt International Film Festival Etiuda&Anima 2013 and the Student Oscar® in the category "Best Foreign Film".

His next short film “TORN” (2014) had its world premiere at Directors' Fortnight in Cannes. Both films were produced by Eva Blondiau, with whom he founded the film production company COLOR OF MAY that since then produces films in co-production worldwide. His feature debut End of the Season (2019) had its world premiere at IFF Rotterdam and was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film. He also works as a screenwriter for international feature films.