– CANNES 2026: The Festival do Rio has brought a compact but varied selection to the Marché du Film’s Goes to Cannes strand, ranging from coastal drama to social horror, via literary biography
Maria Gal in Carolina Maria de Jesus by Jeferson De (© Mari Vianna)
The Marché du Film’s Goes to Cannes strand has once again offered festival and market partners from around the world a platform to present curated selections of works in progress to international sales agents, distributors and festival programmers (see the news). Among this year’s guest events is Festival do Rio – Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, which hosted Rio Goes to Cannes on 15 May, from 10:00-11:50, at Palais K in the Palais des Festivals.
Founded in 1999, Festival do Rio is regarded as Latin America’s largest film festival and one of the region’s key meeting points for industry professionals. Over the years, it has screened more than 7,000 films, including titles rewarded at Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Venice and other major international events. Its core programme, Première Brasil, has become one of the main showcases for contemporary Brazilian cinema, offering a broad overview of the country’s fiction, documentary and short-film production.
The five projects selected for Rio Goes to Cannes are all due to be completed in 2026 and collectively point to a Brazilian cinema engaged with memory, displacement, social pressure, and the shifting relationship between personal identity and collective trauma.
Access to the Rio Goes to Cannes showcase was reserved for Marché du Film badge holders.
Beyond the Edge – Jo Serfaty (Brazil/France)
The 115-minute Portuguese-language drama is being co-produced by Brazil and France. The film is being staged by Clarissa Guarilha for Arissas, Violeta Kreimer and Valentina Merli for Misia Films, and João Medeiros-Moraes for Claroscuro Cine. Set in a small coastal village gradually being swallowed up by the sea, the film follows a fisherwoman and her young granddaughter as they face the imminent loss of their home. The arrival of a long-time vacationer unsettles the fragile balance of the place, allowing buried desires and long-forgotten memories to resurface. The project appears to combine intimate family drama with a broader reflection on environmental erosion and the emotional violence of disappearing landscapes.
Days of Fire – Maju de Paiva, Bernardo Florim (Brazil)
Described as a “work of fantastic realism and horror”, the 85-minute Portuguese-language film is being produced by Gabriel Corrêa e Castro, Sérgio Pedrosa, Juliana Bravo, Danielle Frangelli, Elisa Petry and Rafael Machado for Viralata Produções, alongside Flávia Feffer, Ruben Feffer and Sabrina Nudeliman Wagon for Elo Studios, with Telecine and Canal Brasil also on board. The story centres on Graça, a woman haunted by dreams of fire, who lives with her daughter in an abandoned building occupied by homeless families. When the building burns down, the pair are forced into the city, searching for somewhere to spend the night, while the living and the dead follow their trail. The project promises a genre-inflected approach to urban precarity and social abandonment.
Talented – Thais Fujinaga (Brazil)
The 80-minute Portuguese-language drama is being staged by Jessica Luz and Paola Wink for Vulcana Cinema, Daniel van Hoogstraten for Aurora Content, and Letícia Friedrich for Vitrine Filmes. The pic follows Tereza, a single mother and frustrated former dancer whose life is thrown into turmoil when her daughter is selected for a children’s talent reality show. As television exposure strains their relationship, Tereza is forced to decide whether to embrace fame, with all of its contradictions, or break a cycle of media exploitation. The film looks set to explore ambition, motherhood and the commodification of childhood within Brazil’s entertainment culture.
Carolina Maria de Jesus – Jeferson De (Brazil/France)
The 100-minute, Portuguese-language drama is being co-produced by Brazil and France. It is led by Maria Gal for Move Maria and Clélia Bessa for Raccord Produções, with Globo Filmes, Rosane Svartman for RSMTS, Cris Arenas for Buda Filmes, Sara Silveira for Dezenove Som e Imagens, and MACT Productions among the co-producers. Based on a worldwide bestseller, the film revisits the life of Carolina Maria de Jesus, the waste picker who, in 1950s Brazil, confronted hunger and racism through writing. Her diaries became a revolutionary literary outcry, turning her into one of the country’s most important cultural icons. The project positions her story as one of survival, authorship and political force.
The Character – Fábio Mendonça (Brazil)
The project is a 90-minute drama-thriller spoken in Portuguese, French and Creole. The film is being produced by Diane Maia, André Novis and Eduardo Nasser for AMAIA Produções, in co-production with Uno Filmes and Globo Filmes. It follows Clarens, a Haitian immigrant in São Paulo, as he tries to reunite his family and build a better future in Brazil, while confronting a society that insists on seeing him only as either a criminal or a victim. Through this premise, the project addresses migration, racialisation and the struggle to reclaim narrative agency.
