Brazilian Competition – Features
Fábio Leal: Director, screenwriter and actor, positions he has taken in the feature film “Follow The Protocol” and the short films “Renovation” and “The Daytime Doorman”. He also directed, scripted and produced, with Gustavo Vinagre, the feature-length documentary “God Has Aids”. He is currently writing his next film, “O Vale dos Homossexuais”.
Pedro Fasanaro: Co-protagonist of the film “Private Desert”, directed by Aly Muritiba. He is part of the cast of “Todxs Nós”, an HBO series directed by Vera Egypt, “Onde Nascem os Fortes” (“Land of the Strong”), a Globo TV superseries, and participated in “Malhação Toda Forma de Amar”. He starred in the short films “Sailor”, directed by Victor Ciríaco, and “I Am Yet to Make You a Love Song”, by Henrique Arruda, which earned him nominations for best actor awards at festivals across the country.
Shakira Refos: Educator from The Netherlands who joined the California Film Institute’s Education Department by way of the Sarasota Film Festival, Sundance Institute and is additionally programming documentary for 2023 Tribeca Festival. With a deep passion for storytelling, Shakira attributes her drive for community, justice and common sense from the cultures of her Mother and Father hailing from Suriname and Trinidad respectively. Her career has been dedicated to empowering young independent thinkers through the exploration of art history and creative expression – prioritizing equitable praxis through engagements with film as well as demystifying the path for BIPOC students to becoming film fest administrators and curators.
Brazilian Competition – Shorts
Cássio Kelm: He studied directing at Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión (EICTV), in Cuba. He has directed 15 short films, which were awarded and screened at several festivals. “Soy” (2017) won the Special Jury Prize for student documentaries at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). “Mothers of Derick” (2020) is his first feature, screened at the Torino International Festival, in Italy – the film received a Special Mention at the Mix Brasil Festival. “Close to You” (2021) was shown at IDFA and Olhar de Cinema – Curitiba Int’l Film Festival. He is currently writing his first fiction feature. He is trans man and manages the production company Haver Filmes.
Humberto Neiva: School of Communications/Film Studies coordinator at Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP), film programmer at Espaço Itaú de Cinema. Winner of the ED Award (Distribution and Exhibition) for Best Programmer of Movie Theaters in Brazil in 2016. Has created the postgraduate course in Production Management and Audiovisual Business at FAAP. He coordinated the independent film distributor Mais Filmes. He was curator and speaker at the Brazilian Film Festival in Chicago, United States. In 2021, created the profile on Instagram @hcnefilos; he also produces and presents the program “CineZero” on the web-radio Antenazero.com.
Victoria Negreiros: Director and screenwriter graduated in the Undergraduate Audiovisual Production Program at the School of Communications and Arts of the University of São Paulo (ECA-USP), having spent time at Université Paris 8. With the short film “How to Breathe Out of Water”, she won the award for best direction at the 29th Mix Brasil Festival. He is currently a screenwriter and assistant screenwriter in the development of projects for channels such as Netflix, Star+ and Paramount, in collaboration with Brazilian production companies.
Theater
Dodi Leal: Professor of Performing Arts at the Federal University of Southern Bahia (UFSB), in Porto Seguro, and at the Postgraduate Program in Performing Arts at the State University of Santa Catarina (PPGAC/UDESC), in Florianópolis. Leader of the Research Group “Performance Pedagogy: visualities of the scene and critical technologies of the body” (CNPq/UFSB). It carries out studies and artistic works of performance, lighting design, theater criticism, curatorship and arts pedagogy. PhD in Social Psychology from the Institute of Psychology of the University of São Paulo (IPUSP) and Degree in Performing Arts from the School of Communication and Arts at USP (ECA-USP). She directs the TEATRA series, published by Hucitec.
Elisabeth Lopes: Beth Lopes is a professor, researcher and theater director. Currently retired, she works as a Senior Lecturer at the Postgraduate Program in Performing Arts at the School of Communication and Arts at the University of São Paulo (PPGAC-ECA-USP). She was a visiting professor at the PPGAC at the Institute of Arts of the University of Brasília (PPGAC-IDA-UnB). As a researcher, she develops studies, publishes articles and academic books focused on Brazilian theater, corporeality, buffoonery, memory and performance. Her path as a theater and performance director stands out with dozens of experimental shows, for which she received nominations and awards.
Pedro Granato: Director, playwright and theater teacher, graduated in Cinema and Video from the School of Communication and Arts of the University of São Paulo (ECA-USP). In 2014, he was selected for the Directors LAB at Lincoln Center, New York. He directed and wrote several award-winning plays, presented in more than ten countries.
