Black Brazilian Artists Take Top Honors at the 28th Festival do Rio
The 28th Festival do Rio closed Oct. 11 at the historic Cine Odeon in downtown Rio de Janeiro. When the Troféus Redentor were handed out, some of the night's biggest honors went to Black Brazilian artists and to a film about one of the country's most defiant voices.
Director Gabriel Martins won Best Director, Best Screenplay and the audience award for Vicentina Pede Desculpas. Grace Passô shared Best Actress for A Professora de Francês. And Eryk Rocha's Elza, a documentary built with and around the late singer Elza Soares, was named Best Documentary.
The top prize, Best Feature Film in the Première Brasil competition, went to A Margem do Rio, from Recife directors Enock Carvalho and Matheus Farias.
The festival screened 101 Brazilian films over ten days, 45 of them in competition, and organizers reported more than 150,000 attendees.
Gabriel Martins goes three for three
No film had a bigger night than Vicentina Pede Desculpas (On Behalf of My Son). It took Best Director for fiction, Best Screenplay and the audience vote for Best Feature Film.
The story begins after a bus plunges from a viaduct in Belo Horizonte, killing everyone aboard. As rumors spread that the driver, Wesley, crashed on purpose, his mother Vicentina, a 75-year-old retired teacher played by Rejane Faria, sets out to apologize to each victim's family on her son's behalf. Every visit brings a different version of what happened.
Martins is the filmmaker behind Marte Um, the warm portrait of a Black family in Minas Gerais that was Brazil's 2023 Oscar submission. Vicentina is a co-production between Netflix and Filmes de Plástico, the company Martins co-founded in 2009. It premiered at TIFF, competed at San Sebastián and is Brazil's pick for the 2027 Goya Awards.
It opens in select theaters Nov. 5 and arrives on Netflix Nov. 20.
Grace Passô shares Best Actress
Grace Passô shared the Best Actress prize with Isabel Teixeira (Diário do Fogo) for her lead turn in A Professora de Francês, a psychological thriller from Minas Gerais director Ricardo Alves Jr.
Passô plays Graça, a French tutor who returns to her childhood home after her father's health emergency. There she finds that her neighbors run a cult that holds the community in its grip. Alves Jr. has described the film's real evil as intolerance, domination and homophobia dressed up as morality and compassion.
The film, a Brazil, France and Portugal co-production shot in Belo Horizonte, also won Best Supporting Actor for Pedro Goifman and Best Original Score for Florencia Di Concilio. It premiered in San Sebastián's Horizontes Latinos section.
For Passô, a playwright, director and actor who is one of the most respected figures in contemporary Brazilian arts, it adds to honors earned for Praça Paris, Temporada and O Dia Que Te Conheci. She also appears in Vicentina Pede Desculpas.
Elza tells Elza Soares's story in her own voice
Eryk Rocha's Elza won Best Documentary in the Première Brasil competition, days after its world premiere at the festival.
Rocha followed Elza Soares for eight years, recording conversations and moments of her life. Rather than lining up relatives and fellow artists to explain her, he lets Elza narrate herself. Her memories and reflections carry the film, woven with music, rare archival footage spanning more than seven decades of her career, and clips from Latin American cinema.
Soares, who died in January 2022, was the voice of samba, jazz and protest who sang about race, violence against women and poverty long before it was safe to do so. Accepting the award, Rocha called Elza a film about Brazilian women, especially Black Brazilian women, and about the country and its struggles. He said he was moved that it premiered in Rio, "na minha cidade," in my city.
The film is co-produced by Aruac Filmes, Maria Farinha Filmes, Globo Filmes and GloboNews. A theatrical release date has not been announced.
A Margem do Rio takes Best Film
The festival's top prize went to A Margem do Rio (The Riverbank), which also won for cinematography, sound and its supporting actresses. Set in the mangroves of Recife, it follows Izaquiel, a cleaner who stumbles on a body during a night encounter and uncovers an evangelical church's violence against queer people. The film premiered in competition at Locarno.
Another standout: Victor di Marco won Best Actor for London. "I am an actor with a disability, and I say so with great pride," he said from the stage.
Première Brasil winners
Award
Winner
Best Feature Film
A Margem do Rio, Enock Carvalho and Matheus Farias
Best Documentary
Elza, Eryk Rocha
Best Director, Fiction
Gabriel Martins, Vicentina Pede Desculpas
Best Director, Documentary
Camila Valença, Cão Sem Plumas
Best Actress (tie)
Grace Passô, A Professora de Francês; Isabel Teixeira, Diário do Fogo
Best Actor
Victor di Marco, London
Best Supporting Actress
Renna Costa, Artia and Ísis Broken, A Margem do Rio
Best Supporting Actor
Pedro Goifman, A Professora de Francês
Best Screenplay
Gabriel Martins, Vicentina Pede Desculpas
Best Cinematography
Luciana Baseggio, A Margem do Rio
Best Original Score
Florencia Di Concilio, A Professora de Francês
Best Short Film
Santo, Maria Luísa Alves
Audience Award, Feature
Vicentina Pede Desculpas
Audience Award, Documentary
Fui Olhar Você Dormir, Anna Azevedo
The Cup of Soul Take
The outcome of Festival do Rio 2026 suggests a film culture that is not waiting for international permission to define itself. The next challenge is ensuring that these stories receive the distribution, investment, and global attention they deserve.
