Mariana de Melo is a Brazilian film producer, director, screenwriter and researcher, originally from Minas Gerais. Her short film The Silence of Iron premiered at the 2024 Rotterdam International Film Festival and is making its festival run. The full-length version of The Silence of Iron will be filmed in 2025. Her feature-length fiction project El recado del fuego, currently in development, was selected to the 2023 Nuevas Miradas forum of the International Film and Television School of San Antonio de los Baños in Cuba (EICTV). Mariana has worked on more than 20 Brazilian feature films and series, including renowned films such as The Edge of Democracy, by Petra Costa, nominated for the Oscar^® for Best Documentary in 2020. Mariana has participated in important film events in Brazil and around the world. 

El recado del fuego [co-written with Yasmin Guimarães] — Araci, Nelson and Ana cross the sertão, a savannah region in the interior of Brazil, in an old Fiat 98 in search of the “message of fire”, a legend told by their grandparents. During their journey, the friends have an encounter with the devil, cross a sleepy river, go through an endless festivity to finally discover what message the fire has for them.