Esmir Filho’s first feature Os Famosos e Os Duenndes Da Morte (The Famous and the Dead) takes Festival do Rio’s Top Prize and FIPRESCI

Dual Prizes handed out to Sandra Werneck’s Stolen Dreams, Sergio Bianchi’s Os Inquilinos (The Tenants Don’t Like It, Leave), Karim Ainouz and Marcelo Gomes’ Viajo Porque Preciso, Volte Porque Te Amo (I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You), Tatiana Issa and Raphael Alvarez’s Dzi Croquettes and late Sergio Bernardes’ Tamboro
Highlighting a particularly strong year for domestic filmmaking, the Premiere Brazil closing awards at the 11th Rio Film Festival, which took place last night, Thursday October 8th, at Rio’s historic Odeon Petrobras cinema, saw honours equally distributed between first time feature makers and previous winners. 2009 will be particularly remembered as a year when female directors came to the forefront, winning awards not only for their work, but for their cast and crew both in front and behind the camera.

A poignant note to the evening came with the awarding of two ‘Redentors’ – the award statuette modeled on the Christ statue, to director Sergio Bernardes, the veteran director whose work was censored during the military regime and who passed away in 2007. His last completed documentary, Tamboro, received the festival’s Special Jury Prize and prize for Best Editing.

The outright winner of the night, taking best picture was twenty-seven year old Sao Paulo director Esmir Filho with his first feature Os Famosos e Os Duendes da Morte (The Famous and The Dead). An acclaimed short film maker, Filho’s debut feature also earned him the FIPRESCI award for best Latin America film in the festival.

Both previous double-award winners at Festival do Rio, directors Marcelo Games and Karim Ainouz took two further awards this year with their jointly scripted and directed Viajo Porque Preciso, Volte Porque Te Amo (I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You) together sharing the Best Director award (previously won by Ainouz in 2006), as well as their film receiving the trophy for Best Photography.

There were two awards apiece also for director Sérgio Bianchi’s Os Inquilinos (The Tenants Don’t Like It, Leave) - taking Best Screenplay for writer Beatrice Bracher and the Best Supporting Actress award for co-star Cássia Kiss.

A point of interest was how well female directors did by their stars: Eliane Caffé’s O Sol Do Meio Dia (The Midday Sun), won its two stars Chico Diaz and Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos a shared Best Actor award; director Sandra Weneck’s Sonhos Roubados (Stolen Dreams) provided Nanda Costa with the Best Actress award. Following the pattern, Suzanna Amaral’s Hotel Atlantico produced a best supporting actor award for Gero Camilo.

Also in the acting category, actor Fulvio Stefanini was singled out for an Honorary Mention for his role in Cabeça a Prêmio, directed by Marco Ricca.

Sandra Werneck, one of Brazil’s most commercially succesful directors, also captured the attention of the public jury who voted her film, Stolen Dreams their choice of best feature in the festival.

In the feature length documentary section both the jury and the public agreed: both honoured Tatiana Issa and Raphael Alvarez’ Dzi Croquettes, a retrospective portrait on the legendary 70’s Brazilian theater group that, through talent, irony and humor, confronted the Brazilian violent dictatorship, revolutionizing the gay movement worldwide and changing theater and dance language for an entire generation.

The Premiere Brazil jury however spilt the documentary award with Ana Maria Magalhães Reidy, a construção da utopia (Reidy, Building Utopia), a look into the trajectory of Brazilian architect and urban planner Affonso Eduardo Reidy, a pioneer of the modern architectural movement.

The jury’s best short award was given to Petra Costa’s Olhos de Ressaca (Undertow Eyes), with an honorary mention to Clovis Mello’s Sildenafil.

Mello’s Sildenafil was compensated however by the public, who gave it their best short award.

This years Premiere Brazil official jury was composed of Argentine director Fernando Solanas; producer Roman Paul; the director of fiction at ARTE, François Sauvagnargues; Brazilian director, Helena Solberg, whose documentary Palavra (en) Cantada (The Enchanted Word) earned her the best director (documentary) prize in Première Brasil at last year's festival; and the popular Brazilian actress Júlia Lemmertz. Winners receive the Troféu Redentor, a trophy inspired by the city’s statue of Christ.

Premiere Brazil – Full List of Official Jury Prizes

- Best Feature, Fiction - Os Famosos e os Duendes da Morte (The Famous and The Dead)
directed by Esmir Filho

- Best Feature Length Documentary – shared: Dzi Croquettes, directed by Tatiana Issa and Raphael Alvarez / Reidy, a construção da utopia (Reidy, Building Utopia) directed by Ana Maria Magalhães

- Best Director - Karim Aïnouz and Marcelo Gomes, for Viajo Porque Preciso, Volto Porque Te Amo (I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You)

- Best Actor – shared: Chico Diaz and Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos, for O Sol do Meio Dia
(The Midday Sun) directed by Eliane Caffé.

- Honorary Mention – Fulvio Stefanini, for Cabeça a Prêmio, directed by Marco Ricca.

- Best Actress - Nanda Costa for Sonhos Roubados (Stolen Dreams) directed by Sandra Werneck.

- Best Supporting Actress - Cássia Kiss, for Os Inquilinos (The Tenants Don’t Like It, Leave).
directed by Sérgio Bianchi

- Best Supporting Actor - Gero Camilo, for Hotel Atlântico (Hotel Atlantico), directed by
Suzana Amaral

- Best Screenplay - Beatriz Bracher, for Os Inquilinos (The Tenants Don’t Like It, Leave),
Directed by Sérgio Bianchi.

- Best Editing – Renato Martins, for Tamboro, directed by Sérgio Bernardes

- Best Photography - Heloísa Passos, for Viajo Porque Preciso (I Travel Because I Have To), directed by Karim Aïnouz and Marcelo Gomes, and for O Amor Segundo b. Schianberg directed by Beto Brant.

- Special Jury Prize - Tamboro, directed by Sérgio Bernardes

- Best Short - Olhos de Ressaca (Undertow Eyes), directed by Petra Costa

- Honorary Mention (Short) - Sildenafil, directed by Clovis Mello

Popular Vote Awards:

- Best Feature, Fiction - Sonhos Roubados (Stolen Dreams), directed by Sandra Werneck

- Best Feature Length Documentary - Dzi Croquettes, directed by Tatiana Issa and Raphael Alvarez

- Best Short - Sildenafil, directed by Clovis Mello


FIPRESCI Award

Os Famosos e os Duendes da Morte (The Famous and the Dead), directed by Esmir Filho