Alexandra Maranini is a 22-year-old Brazilian filmmaker from São Paulo whose work focuses on psychological horror and the exploration of the human experience through emotionally driven storytelling. A graduate of the Cinema and Audiovisual program at Belas Artes University, she has developed a distinctive authorial voice that blends social realism, symbolism, and unsettling atmospheres to explore themes such as trauma, vulnerability, and memory. Her career includes directing the music video Pretas na Rua (2022), writing the short film Segunda Camada (2023), and handling post-production for the documentary Santo (2023), which examines the influence of funk music on Brazil's peripheral communities. In 2024, she worked as Assistant Director and Sound Designer on the short film Ícarus, which received the Best Original Score award at the 4th Belas Artes Film Festival. In 2025, she wrote, directed, and edited 'The Contortionist', a psychological horror short exploring digital voyeurism and mental health. Sponsored by Campari—an unprecedented achievement for a student production at her university—the film received five awards and eight nominations at the Belas Artes Film Festival and was selected for two editions of the Women in Cinema showcase, organized by Belas Artes and Batom Produções. The project further established her artistic research into horror as a means of addressing contemporary issues and internal psychological conflict. Her latest work, 'Permission to Speak' (2026), is a psychological horror short about domestic violence told from a child's perspective. Developed over the course of one year—including six months of research and six months of production—the film was written, directed, and sound-designed by Maranini, with support from 22 Locações. The project deepens her exploration of childhood imagination, the mechanisms of trauma, and the construction of fear as a subjective experience. Alexandra is currently focused on expanding the international presence of her work through film festivals, building a body of work committed to thought-provoking narratives that examine the fragilities, contradictions, and resilience of the human condition.
