Melina Tupa is an award-winning Argentinean and Brazilian journalist, documentary director, editor, and producer.

In 2024, she served as Series Producer for Video Consortium’s Solutions Storytelling Project: Latin America, supporting 16 filmmakers in the production of short documentaries on the environment, human rights, culture, art, women’s rights, Indigenous rights, mental health, and education. The series won a Silver Telly Award in the Online Series, Social Impact category.

She edited and produced Miss Panama, a short documentary about the first Black woman crowned Miss Panama, who was asked to answer an additional obscure legal question before her victory. The film premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and later aired on Al Jazeera.

Her notable editing credits include A La Calle, a feature documentary that captures the extraordinary efforts of Venezuelans as they struggle to reclaim democracy from Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship. The film premiered at DOC NYC 2020 and was nominated for a 43rd News & Documentary Emmy in the Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary category.

Her short documentary The Search tells the story of Estela de Carlotto, president of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, whose grandson was abducted during Argentina’s military dictatorship. The film won Best Short Documentary at the Amnesty International Film Festival, was a Student Academy Award finalist, and received the Society of Professional Journalists’ Excellence in Journalism Award for Student Special Project, among other honors. It has screened at festivals worldwide.

Melina holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and a Master of Journalism from UC Berkeley, where she specialized in documentary filmmaking and photojournalism. At Berkeley, she received a Documentary Merit Fellowship and the Carlos M. Castañeda Journalism Scholarship.

She is also the recipient of the N.S. Bienstock Fellowship, awarded to a promising minority journalist in radio or television news, and a 2025 BGDM MafiaMind Fellow.

Raised in a multicultural environment, Melina is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and English, and is currently learning French. She is a member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM), the Alliance of Documentary Editors (ADE), BIPOC Doc Editors, and the Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA).