Mary Martins-Pereira is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, documentary animator and historian, visualising the invisible archives of the Black Atlantic. Her approach is guided through a decolonial lens, using experimentation, animated documentary approaches and 16mm film to explore transatlantic histories, specialising in relations between Nigeria and Brazil and the African diasporic communities in the UK. Through a professional body of international and national festival-screened films, her work questions the politics of space, activating underrepresented stories, memories and human connection.
Her films have screened at international film festivals such as the Edinburgh International Film Festival, London International Animation Film Festival, London Short Film Festival, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Lagos International Animation Festival, Spark Animation Festival, Canada, Cardiff Animation Festival, Manchester Animation Festival, Festival Cine O'Clock, Lyon, Women Watch Uzbekistan, Reclaim the Frame, Tricky Women Tricky Realities, London Piccadilly Lights, Berlin Limes, Seoul K-Pop Square, the Royal Academy Schools, Roundhouse, The Barbican Centre, BFI, BBC4, Tate Britain, UCL Gallery, Refugee Festival Scotland, 198 Contemporary Gallery and toured with the British Film Council.
She was selected for Film London's Lodestar in Animation in 2025, nominated for best animated documentary at the British Animation Awards in 2024, longlisted for the Jarman Award in 2023, nominated for the McLaren Animation Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2022 and best documentary for the Performance Short Film Competition in 2022 and 2024, won the CIRCA x Dazed Art Prize in 2022 and the Procreate Mother Art Prize in 2018.
Education
PhD in African Animation - University of Westminster (Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media)
MA Animation (Documentary) - Royal College of Art
BA Animation and Moving Image - University of East London
BA Philosophy - University of Birmingham