The Brazilian film community is still buzzing over the acclaim they received across the Cannes of 2025. Kleber Mendonça Filho was named Best Director for his The Secret Agent and Wagner Moura was named Best Actor for leading the same film in what were both firsts for a nation that prides itself on its cinema and has done since the industry first took root there in the late 1890s.
Filho’s layered, nuanced political thriller showcased the strength of contemporary Brazilian cinema and built on the success enjoyed globally by veteran filmmaker Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here, which came to the Cannes market last year as the nation’s first-ever Best International Feature Film Oscar winner, and was duly picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for North American and international markets.
Heads were also turned towards Brazil’s role as Country of Honor at the 2025 Marché du and the now industry is determined to keep the world’s focus fixed in 2026.
Brazilian production company RT Features is leading the way this year, with Dominga Sotomayor’s lyrical tale of a woman haunted by childhood trauma La Perra — starring I’m Still Here’s Selton Mello — in the Directors’ Fortnight and the international crime drama, and Brazilian co-production, Paper Tiger, directed by James Gray, starring Adam Driver and Scarlett, in Competition.
