Mariana Liz is Assistant Professor in Film Studies at the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Lisbon in Portugal (FLUL) and a researcher at Centro de Estudos Comparatistas also at FLUL. She received a PhD in Film Studies from King’s College London in 2012. Mariana was a Lecturer in Film Studies at King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London and the University of Leeds in the UK. She was a Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon (ICS-ULisboa). She was an adviser to the Secretary of State for Film, Audiovisual and Media, working closely with the film literacy initiative Plano Nacional de Cinema (PNC).

Her main research interests are the idea of Europe in contemporary fiction and the transnational history of Portuguese film. Mariana has published articles in academic journals including Aniki, Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, Northern Lights, Studies in European Cinema, Journal of Romance Studies and New Cinemas. She is the author of Euro-Visions (2016), editor of Portugal's Global Cinema (2018), and co-editor of Women's Cinema in Contemporary Portugal (with Hilary Owen, 2020), which was published in Portuguese as Realizadoras Portuguesas: Cinema no Feminino na Era Contemporânea (2023).

In 2025, Mariana received an Honourable Mention, Prémios Científicos ULisboa/Caixa Geral de Depósitos, in the scientific area of Literatures and Cultures.