Festival do Rio Goes to Cannes Features Vinicius Jr., Daniel Ribeiro

“Clarice and the Stars,” soccer star Vinicius Jr.’s first movie as a producer, and envelope-pushing “Amanda and Caio,” with an all trans-gender cast, feature in an impactful and committed Festival do Rio Goes to Cannes showcase, plumbing issues of race, gender and ultraconservatism.

Heading to the Cannes Film Festival, whose Marché du Film market will host five Goes To showcases staged by film festivals around the world, Festival do Rio Goes to Cannes is to unspool on May 17.

If clips are anything to go by, a cute coming of age fantasy drama, movie “Clarice and the Stars” is produced by Brazil’s Luminar and co-produced by Aurora Aurora E² and Brazil’s Instituto Vini Jr., a non-governmental organization (NGO) founded by the Real Madrid player in 2021 targeting access to education for children from disadvantaged neighbourhoods.  

“Amanda and Caio” marks the latest film from Daniel Ribeiro who won a Berlinale queer Teddy Award and a Panorama Fipresci Award for his first feature in 2014, “The Way He Looks.”  

Brazilian films play competition – Kleber Mendoça Filho’s “The Secret Agent” – and Cannes’ ACID in the case of co-pro “The Black Snake.” They also feature in market selections, such as Fernanda Alves Salgado’s  lyrical grief-focused “Ana, en passant” at Cannes’ Annecy Animation Showcase and soon-to-be announced Marché  showcases such as the genre-focused Blood Window. 

Featuring a full five Brazilian titles, however, and organized by the Marché du Film with the support of the Rio de Janeiro Int’l. Film Festival, Brazil’s premier film festival, and the Audiovisual Secretariat of the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, Festival do Rio Goes to Cannes takes on extra weight as a government backed Brazilian showcase which forms part of this year’s Brazil Country of Honor celebrations at the Cannes Film Festival. 

Goes To titles take in not just Rio de Janeiro (“Clarice and the Stars”) but São Paulo (“Amanda and Caio,” “Sistermaids”), Alagoas in Brazil’s Northeast (“We Are Not Dreaming”) and Santa Catarina in the South (“Virtuous Women”)  The lineup also says a lot about currents, both artistic and industrial, coursing through contemporary Brazilian filmmaking. Five takes and profiles of the titles: 

A Next Generation Medley

Ribeiro (“Perfect Endings”) burst onto the scene in 2008 winning the Berlinale’s Generation 14plus best short with “You, Me Him.” He’s racked up 54 fest wins since then. Otherwise, all directors – Leticia Pires, Ulisses Arthur, Cintia Domit Bittar, Carol Rodrigues – are making their fiction feature debuts.      

Envelope Pushing Brazil

As the U.S. sinks into autocracy, Brazil’s cinema is battling to help the country emerge. The Festival do Rio lineup catches its new zeitgeist and drive under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva into supporting the film and TV industry. 

One case in point: “At a time when the trans community is under attack on so many fronts, this film moves in the opposite direction. From the lead actors to background extras, every individual on screen is a transgender person,” says “Amanda and Caio” producer Diana Almeida. “Sistermaids” takes in not only racism but more unusually, colorism – discrimination based on skin tone. All five titles are made by young Black filmmakers or a trans-gender cast or arraign ultraconservatism. 

Inclusivity

One of the largest points of “Amanda and Caio,” is that, despite its trans-gender cast, Amanda and Caio’s experience is completely relatable. Likewise, “Clarice And The Stars” is “far from the marginal narratives so often seen on screen,” says writer-director Leticia Pires. Vinicius Jr.’s involvement “reinforces the project’s mission to offer a meaningful and inclusive cinematic experience—one where many who have rarely seen themselves on screen can finally feel represented,” adds Marcos Pieri, a creative producer at Aurora E². Equally, “Sistermaids” “began as a reflection on how racism and colorism shape Black family ties,” says director Carol Rodrigues.    

Brazil’s Big Money Surge

Under Bolsonaro, in 2019 Brazil’s independent Tribunal de Contas da Uniao (TCU) froze new incentives from Brazil’s Fundo Setorial do Audiovisual (FSA), its giant federal film-TV agency, on concerns about accountability. Now new or hiked federal, regional or other funding is powering up Brazil’s industry. All five titles have FSA funding, “Clarice” was backed by Rio de Janeiro investment fund RioFilme; Paulo Gustavo Law COVID-19 recuperation funding was key to completing the “Sistermaids’” financing and securing post-production, says Rodrigues. “Virtuous Women” received a Santa Catarina government grant. 

Women-Lead Genre

Few moves are more exciting in Latin America than women’s genre movies using or overturning genre convention to question gender perception and convention: Think “Friendly Beast,” “Good Manners,” “Medusa,” “Clara Sola” and “Huesera.” In the selection, “Sistermaids” enrolls the supernatural, or at least magical realism. “‘Virtuosas’ stands out as “feminist horror that goes beyond the ‘final girl’ trope: it delves into the psychology of complex, flawed women who embrace or exploit distorted faith,” says director Cíntia Domit Bittar.   

And the titles: 

“Amanda and Caio,” (“Eu Vou Ter Saudades de Você,” Daniel Ribeiro)

After seven years together, Amanda and Caio move in. He dreams of a future with her; she dreams of something more. Then Amanda meets João. “Some loves fade. Others transform,”  the logline says. A relationship drama from Ribeiro and his career-long producer Diana Almeida at São Paulo’s Lacuna Filmes, and quite possibly the first feature film to feature an entirely trans cast, Almeida suggests. “Rooted in affection, complexity, and transformation,” says Almeida, the film is a break-up story “that feels intimate and real — one that centers trans characters, but speaks to emotions anyone can relate to,” she adds.  

“Clarice and the Stars,” (“Clarice Vê Estrelas,” Leticia Pires)

Clarice, almost eight, is told to make room for a new baby. Shocked she may no longer be the apple of her parents’ eyes, in the attic she finds a magical book introducing her to the fantasy Circus Aquarius, through which she learns to face her fears. “A deeply personal and poetic vision of childhood, imagination, and resilience,” says producer Pieri, “Clarice” is lead produced by Pires’ Luminar Filmes, founded to open doors for professionals historically excluded from the industry, and co-produced by Instituto Vini Jr. and Aurora E², whose “Magdalena” competed at 2021’s Rotterdam Festival and San Sebastian’s Horizontes Latinos strand. 

“Sistermaids,” (“Criadas,” Carol Rodrigues)

“A psychological drama with supernatural elements, written, directed, and led by Black women,” says Julia Zakia, “Sistermaids” producer-DP at Gato do Parque Cinematográfica. In it, Sandra revisits cousin Mariana’s house, where she grew up. Both are Black women but the world read their skin tones differently. “As they reconnect, memories long buried take shape: Ghosts of childhood, of lineage, of love that never fully left,” the synopsis runs. Winning three awards at 2017’s BrLab and a Frapa 2020 Honorable Mention for screenwriting, “Sistermaids” is “a story about forgiveness, self-forgiveness, and healing in the face of violence,” says Rodrigues.   

“Virtuous Women,” (“Virtuosas,” Cíntia Domit Bittar) 

An exclusive VIP retreat for virtuous Christian women plunges into chaos and horror in the grip of an obscure witch legend. The fiction feature debut of Domit Bittar whose 2019 “Summer Ball” won best short at Colombia’s Cartagena Festival. “By blending acid humor, social critique of ultraconservatism, Christian fundamentalist denialism and uncanny suspense, the film weaves a tense journey of power and paranoia while also highlighting the danger of underestimating reactionary women’s movements,” she says. “The film reveals a Brazil rarely portrayed on screen,” adds producer Ana Paula Mendes.

“We Are Not Dreaming,” (Ulisses Arthur)

Described by Arthur as a “sexy rebellious drama” and selected for Brazil’s Incubadora Paradiso, part of Projeto Paradiso, where its script development was mentored by renowned director Marcelo Gomes (“Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures”) in an example of Brazilian cinema’s admirable community spirit. “We Are Not Dreaming” turns on Ciro, a medical student and pole dancing teacher for his friends who, with grants delayed, moves into the apartment of Antônio, a D.J. The film “brings the rhythm and drive of young black Brazilians in social mobility, who are occupying positions of power and changing the face of a country of whitewashed structures,” says Arthur. It is produced by Céu Vermelho Fogo Filmes, focused on auteurist, irreverent stances, especially on issues of race and queerness in contemporary Brazil.