About SplicD Cinema
SplicD Cinema (pronounced spliced) programs films and events that reveal the cracks in our daily lives. Our curation ranges from documentaries that illuminate perspectives we don’t often see, to states of suspended reality that imagine alternate worlds and ways of living. Born out of the 2025 Barbican Young Film Programmers cohort and founded by Mariana Enriquez Denton Bustinza, Marta Cappozzo, and Afra Nuarey, SplicD grew from a shared desire to bring together film buffs and casual cinemagoers alike. Featuring archival gems, personal favourites, and bold new voices, our collective aims to build a community that engages with film as a way of understanding the world.
Our work is grounded in the belief that film can hold complexity, contradiction, and care, and that both what we choose to show and how we show it matter. For us, curation is not neutral. It is a practice of listening and responsibility, rooted in world-building. We create spaces where films are not simply consumed but shared, inviting audiences to reflect and connect. In doing so, we hope to contribute to a more expansive cinematic landscape.
Afra Nuarey
Afra is a film programmer and documentary storyteller based in London and Dhaka. She is particularly interested in exploring humane stories of lived values, contradictions and liminal journeys through cinema that bring communities together. Previously, she co-programmed Sarah Maldoror’s Dessert for Constance (1981) and a screening of shorts Not Here, But Everywhere at the 2025 Chronic Youth Film Festival as part of Barbican Young Film Programmer’s cohort.
Alongside her programming experience, she directed and produced her short documentary - Heads Above Water (2023) - available on NownessAsia, and working as a freelance video editor.
Mariana Enriquez Denton Bustinza
Mariana is a London-based film programmer and industry analyst whose work explores how cinema can encourage conversations across borders and communities. She co-curated the Barbican’s 2025 Chronic Youth Film Festival, Against All Odds, programming Neo Sora’s Happyend (2024). She also took part in the Locarno Industry Academy at the 2025 Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
Alongside her curatorial work, Mariana is a Film & TV Industry Analyst at Ampere Analysis, where she produces widely cited reports on global screen trends. With an MA in Race, Ethnicity, and Postcolonial Studies from UCL, she brings a critical and inclusive lens to programming.
Marta Cappozzo
Marta is a London-based film curator with an interdisciplinary background gained through previous work in theatre and art galleries. She is particularly interested in cinematic representations of liminal spaces and ambiguous narrative states, with a parallel engagement in women-focused filmmaking and queer narratives.
She programmed Talking About Trees (2019) for the 2025 Chronic Youth Film Festival at Barbican, which she co-curated as part of the Young Film Programmers cohort. Alongside her work with SplicD Cinema, Marta works as a freelance screener for various film festivals, the most recent one being Clapham International Film Festival.