Mariana Duarte is a filmmaker and PhD candidate in Design (Film Practice) at Edinburgh College of Art, particularly interested in documentary filmmaking and migrant cinema. She graduated with a BA in History from Rio de Janeiro State University and an MA in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Turin.

After over seven years as an in-house editor at TV Globo in Brazil, she graduated from Kino Eyes Erasmus Film Masters, with a full-degree Erasmus Mundus scholarship and mobility in three European Universities: Screen Academy Scotland (UK), Baltic Film School (Estonia) and Lusofona University (Portugal).

She directed the short documentary Newcomers (2013), which premiered at the Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival, and edited various short films, including the drama Three Graces (2020), which screened at the São Paulo International Short Film Festival.

In 2022, she was selected for Berlinale Talents and a Bafta Connect Membership.