Melissa Parry

Melissa Parry has worked as a freelance film editor since 2005, shaping culturally significant stories across documentaries, feature films and series. Her work has earned international recognition and multiple awards. Notable credits include National Geographic’s Birth of a Pride (2019), Netflix’s first African Original Queen Sono (2020), the Amazon USA series Classified (2023), and the documentary series Senzo: Murder of a Soccer Star (2022) as well as the critically acclaimed Tracking Thabo Bester (2024), Showmax’s most-watched title across all genres. Beyond the edit suite, Melissa is an active contributor to the global screen industry as a juror, moderator, panellist and mentor. In 2022 she was welcomed as an International Partner member of the American Cinema Editors (ACE). She participated as a panelist on the ACE EditFest Global 2022 panel Editing for the World, and was featured on the Global Editing Perspectives podcast, released in early 2025. She also participated in the panel Who Can Tell the Story? at the CineGouna Forum during the 8th edition of the El Gouna Film Festival, where she mentored the CineGouna Funding films in post-production. In 2025, she presented the workshop How Johannesburg’s Past Shapes It’s Cinematic Future at the 3rd Film Criticism Workshop in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which has since been developed into an essay for a forthcoming book to be published by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Film Commission in 2026.