Dalibor Matanić was born in Zagreb in 1975 to Tomo, a building engineer, and Anka, who worked as a cashier.

[3] In 2002, he released the feature Fine Dead Girls, a drama about a lesbian couple that suffers from the hands of their landlords and family members.

[3][4][5] In 2004, he released 100 Minutes of Glory, a biographical drama about Slava Raškaj, a turn-of-the-century artist, often described as Croatian Frida Kahlo.

[12] The High Sun was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Jury Prize.

[23] Also in 2020, Matanić directed the main opening program "Opera Industrial" for Rijeka 2020 and staged for the Croatian National Theater a play "Berlin" written by Ivor Martinić.

[28][29] In April 2024 Matanić confessed that he deeply regrets ('kajem se') actions that he had committed, namely sexual harassment of his female colleagues.

As Matanić confessed in interviews, he named his children after the heroes of the movies which changed his life and influenced him deeply.