The film Brazil has entered in the race for the Academy Award for best international feature can now be seen by the audience that will judge whether it deserved the slot. "Feito Pipa", the second fiction feature by Ceará-born director Allan Deberton, opened in Brazilian cinemas on Thursday (5), distributed by Paris Filmes.
The choice was made by the Academia Brasileira de Cinema (the Brazilian Film Academy), and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces its nominations on January 21.
The story
Running 1 hour 33 minutes, the film is set in Quixadá, in the central backlands of the state of Ceará, in an area flooded by a dam — the town that vanished beneath the reservoir is part of the landscape of the story.
Gugu, played by Yuri Gomes, is 11 and loves football, make-up, music and dance. He lives with his grandmother Dilma, a retired teacher played by Teca Pereira. As her Alzheimer's symptoms advance, the boy starts hiding her condition so he will not have to move in with his father, Batista — played by Lázaro Ramos — with whom his relationship is difficult.
It is Deberton's second fiction feature after Pacarrete (2019).
How it got here
- Berlin: the film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the youth jury's Crystal Bear and the main jury prize in the Generation Kplus section.
- Gramado 2026: it was the most-awarded film of the edition, with five trophies, according to CNN Brasil, cited by CartaCapital.
- Kyiv: it took the Scythian Deer trophy in the Teen Screen competition at the 55th edition of Molodist, the Kyiv international film festival.
- Los Angeles: actor Wagner Moura presented a screening in Hollywood Hills, at The Ross House, in an event tied to the Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival. Lázaro Ramos, Teca Pereira and Yuri Gomes attended the festival's opening.
International sales are handled by Germany's M-Appeal.
What is at stake
The best international feature category works in two stages: each country submits a single title, and the Academy narrows the field to a shortlist before arriving at five nominees. Winning the Brazilian slot is therefore only the first of the filters — which is why the festival run "Feito Pipa" built through 2026 counts for more than its opening-weeks box office.
With information from CartaCapital and Paris Filmes.
