Mara Martinoli’s main passion is to organise film events with a twist. She loves showing film classics from every corner of the planet, but she also likes to programme new independent movies.

She started as an intern at the Cineteca of Bologna in 2004 and in the past ten years she has worked in many film festivals in Bologna and Milan, especially dealing with promotion and hospitality. Afterwards, she developed some film festival projects on her own, among which “Healthy Good Movies “, a silent film festival with live music (electronic, jazz, classical and rock music!) in her cultural association in Milan.

In 2011, her cinema project “Italiani Brava Gente” won the International Competition held by Premio Pro Arte. The award recognises young people who are into creative industry and promote the history of their country. They favour projects that benefit to discover places, culture, nature and local traditions.

Currently, she lives in Berlin, and she is in charge of “CinemAperitivo” at the Cinema Babylon, an event that takes part every Sunday afternoon. She selects Italian films to be screened to a highly multicultural audience in the city, chooses the titles, contacts the distributors and introduces each film to the public.

CinemAperitivo is a bridge between Germany and Italy. Martinoli selects films that are produced by both Germany and Italy, such as Il Cuore in Mano, I Piedi sulla Strada (Uli Möller, 2013). The film is a road movie with a difference. Here Uli Möller tells us personal stories. In some cases, they are hot and lively, sometimes cool and calm, sometimes hard and realistic. Uli Möller creates images, situations and thoughts that shake like a car through the long coastal road.

What she loves more is simply to “show good films to people”. It does not matter if this occurs in a cinema, at her home, or in a smoky pub. Mara’s name comes from Claudia Cardinale´s character in Bebo’s Girl (Luigi Comenicini, 1964): love for cinema is, in fact, a family matter.

Martinoli is the kind of girl you would be glad to meet in a festival queue. She will tell you what’s best to watch in seconds. And you can trust her; she watches a lot of stuff!

You order to contact Mara just write to write to xymara@gmail.com. And click here in order to find out more about CinemAperitivo.