Desvia Splits From Mascaro, Unveils 'The Last Cruise' — SkimNews
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- Gabriel Mascaro left Desvia Filmes earlier this year to launch Trema alongside veteran producer Paula Cosenza, with Trema focused on international co-productions, scripted series and auteur cinema with global reach while Desvia retains its focus on form-bending indie films.
- Rachel Daisy Ellis, Desvia's remaining co-founder, presented her fiction-directorial debut 'The Last Cruise' at San Sebastián's Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum — a hybrid doc-fiction film about an elderly couple spending their final years on a cruise rather than entering a care home.
- Ellis locked production financing in Brazil for 'The Last Cruise,' an idea seeded 15 years ago after a British Council contact told her elderly Brits were dying on cruise ships with bodies stored under the deck, and recruited Argentinian producer Gema Juárez Allen to co-produce with Argentina.
- Camille Reis, a long-term Desvia collaborator, was elevated to partner and now leads on multiple projects following Mascaro's exit.
- Desvia's forward pipeline includes Clarisa Navas's 'They Burn the Same Way' (a buzzy Venice Gap-Financing Bridge title), Filipa Reis' 'Lontra' co-produced with Portugal, Spain, France and Argentina, and Indigenous filmmaker Wara's feature debut 'Who Named the Earth?'
- Founded in 2010, Desvia has launched all 16 of its features at major festivals including Berlin, Cannes and Locarno.
Why it matters: The split effectively doubles Brazil's footprint in auteur-driven international cinema — Trema can pursue larger co-productions and series while Desvia keeps its festival pipeline of daring indie features intact, and the 16-festival-premiere track record gives both companies credibility with global financiers weighing their next projects.
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