He took a degree in film and TV directing from FAMU in Prague in 1970. Throughout his rich creative career, he made more than seventy documentaries, short feature films, and commercials. While working on television, he made the acclaimed TV series Grlom u jagode. His feature films Miris poljskog cveća (1978; won the Golden Arena for the best director in Pula and the film critics’ award in Cannes), Petrijin venac (1980), Nešto između (1982), Jagode u grlu (1985), Za sada bez naslova (1988), Virdžina (1991) received great acclaim in international film festivals and were shown in more than thirty countries around the world. In 2003, Karanović made the film Sjaj u očima.