Masha Novikova was born in 1956 in Moscow, USSR. She studied pedagogy at the University of Moscow. Shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall she came to the Netherlands, since then she has been living and working in Amsterdam.
Mascha directed her first film Fallen Engel in 2005. It is a documentary about East -European women who were brought to the Netherlands to work as prostitutes. Before making Three Comrades (2006) Masha Novikova did some earlier work in Chechnya for documentary by Leo de Boer entitled Train to Grozny. That was in April 2000, just after Grozny's total destruction. Driven by a feeling of shame about her own country, she has felt very much involved in the Chechnyan war ever since. In 2002 Masha Novikova did some shooting in Grozny for Jos de Putter's film Dance Grozny Dance. She also worked in 2003 with Amnesty International on a film about Lidia Yusupova, who won the Martin Ennals Award in Geneve. In 2007 she directed together with Frank van den Hengel Between Heaven and Earth.
Her last film till date Anna, Seven Years on the Frontline tells the story of Anna Politkovska, Russian journalist who openly criticised Russian government for military aggression in Chechnya and was later murdered.