The Riverbank Sweeps Rio Film Festival Top Prizes — SkimNews
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- "The Riverbank" (dirs. Enock Carvalho and Matheus Farias) won Best Fiction Feature at this year's Rio Film Festival, having previously won at Locarno; set in Recife, it follows cleaner Izaquiel and fisherman Jeremias as violence drives them into the mangroves where reality and myth intertwine.
- Eryk Rocha's "Elza" won Best Documentary Feature, tracing singer Elza Soares' seven-decade career through rare archival material and intimate conversations from her final years, backed by Aruac Filmes, Maria Farinha Filmes, Globo Filmes, RAI Cinema, and Gullane+.
- "The Riverbank" dominated beyond fiction, also claiming the Felix LGBTQIA+ Award for Brazilian Film, Cinematography, Sound Design, and two Supporting Actress prizes (Renna Costa and Ísis Broken), per the festival's full winners list.
- Gabriel Martins won Director – Fiction and Screenplay for Toronto-selected "On Behalf of My Son," which also took the Fiction Feature Audience Award.
- "The French Teacher" (dir. Ricardo Alves Jr., fresh from San Sebastián) swept acting and craft categories: Grace Passô tied for Actress, Pedro Goifman won Supporting Actor, and Florencia Di Concilio took Original Score.
- The Premiére Brasil jury was presided over by veteran "La Bola Negra" producer Esther García and included Berlinale co-director of programming Jacqueline Lyanga, French producer Sophie Erbs, composer Flavia Tygel, and casting director Marcela Altberg.
Why it matters: "The Riverbank" sweeping both the fiction and LGBTQIA+ Felix prizes — plus four technical awards — positions it as Rio's breakout and a likely contender on Brazil's awards-season circuit, while the festival's TV Globo and Telecine acquisition awards hand distribution paths to smaller titles like "Six Months in the Pink and Blue Building."
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