Mirella Martinelli is an Award-Wining Filmmaker, born and raised in Brazil. Living in Sarasota, FL Mirella edited Pool (2016, directed by Leandro Goddinho), which received 33 awards in international film festivals, including Best Foreign Language Short Film at the Orlando Film Festival, the Audience Award for Short Film at the Tampa Bay Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, and the jury’s Honorable Mention at the Outshine Film Festival in Miami. Mirella Martinelli received the Sarasota Arts & Cultural Alliance of Sarasota Ringling Tower Fund grant and a Puffin Foundation grant to produce Frenemies. Mirella Martinelli worked as a film professor in Brazil and the United States, where she taught film at Columbia College Chicago and the University of Tampa. Mirella was awarded by American Cinema Editors, and her film Land of the Sea was funded by the Rockefeller and MacArthur Foundations. She worked in the Brazilian film industry for three decades as an editor, screenwriter, director, and producer. Mirella received numerous awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Editor. NEH recipient Elizabeth Coffman joined the FRENEIMIES team as a producer. Her documentary Flannery won the first-ever Library of Congress / Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film.