Features

Adrift – Opening Night Film

OPENING NIGHT
U.S Premiere
Time: 6:00pm ARRIVALS
Presentation promptly at 7:30pm
Opening Film at 8:00pm
Cocktail Party at 9:45pm
By invitation & or purchase Opening Tickets only
Cocktail Attire
(À DERIVA), by director Heitor Dhalia with Vincent Cassel and Camilla Belle — The festival opening night feature, earned a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival — Un Certain Regard in 2009 [...]

In Therapy – Awards Night Film

AWARDS NIGHT
Time: 6:30pm ARRIVALS
Award Ceremony at 7:00pm
Closing Film West Coast Premiere at 8:00pm
10:00pm — After Party at  Les Deux in Hollywood
By invitation & or purchase Awards Tickets only
Cocktail Attire

In Therapy (Divã), by director José Alvarenga Junior with Lília Cabral and José Mayer — Mercedes’ story is not unlike most other middle-aged women’s stories: she [...]

Black Gold – Sat May 1st at 11:45pm

(Ouro Negro)
2009 Brazil 115 MIN Drama
Director: Isa  Albuquerque
Cast: Danton Mello, Thiago Fragoso, Maria Ribeiro, Luiza Curvo, Chico Diaz, Odilon Wagner, Daniel Dantas, and many others.
The great adventure that led to the discovery of oil in Brazil involved idealistic pioneers, murder, foreign infiltration, national mobilization, and wound up as the nationalization of what is considered 20th [...]

Time of Fear – Thu April 29th at 9:15pm

(Salve Geral)
2009 Brazil 120 MIN Drama
Director: Sergio Rezende
Cast: Andrea Beltrao, Denise Weinberg and Lee Thalor
Lucia, a piano teacher who recently became a widow, is shocked when she discovers that her only son Rafa has murdered a young woman. Desperate to free him from prison, she becomes involved with the criminal organization responsible for a series [...]

Strangers – Thu April 29th at 6:50pm

(Estranhos)
2009 Brazil 93 MIN Comedy
Director: Paulo Alcântara
Cast: Jackson Costa , Cyria Coentro , Caco Monteiro, Nelito Reis, Ângelo Flávio and Mariana Muniz
A singing street performer, an ex-prostitute and her jealous husband, two thieves, a teacher and two children. All strange. All in the same place. Five distinct stories that could be one in the same: [...]

Saens Pena Square – Wed April 28th at 6:15pm

(Praça Saens Peña)
2008 Brazil 100 MIN Drama
Director: Vinicius Reis
Cast: Maria Padilha, Chico Diaz, Isabela Meireles
Paulo works as a high school literature teacher, his wife Teresa manages a local food store and their daughter Bel  is still in school. They live in a rented flat in Sans Pena Square, the heart of Tijuca, an old and [...]

Pau Brasil – Wed April 28th at 1:00pm

(Pau Brasil)
2009 Brazil 98 MIN Drama
Director: Fernando Belens
Cast: Bertrand Duarte, Osvaldo Mil, Fernanda Paquelet, Arany Santana, Edlo Mendes, Fernanda Beling, Milena Flick
In Pau Brasil, a small, isolated town in the heart of Brazil, the families of Joaquim and Nives live side by side. Although they live together in the same perverse structure of social oppression, [...]

The Little Cowboy – Wed April 28th at 2:45pm

(O Menino da Porteira)
2009 Brazil 94 MIN Drama
Director: Jeremias Moreira
Cast: Daniel, José de Abreu, Eucir de Souza, João Pedro, Vanessa Giacomo
While herding new cattle to Ouro Fino Ranch, owned by Major Batista, a cowboy named Diogo stops at Remanso Farm, where he becomes friends with Otacilio and his son Rodrigo, the little cowboy. Later, in [...]

Eye of the Storm – Wed April 28th at 6:00pm

(No Meu Lugar)
2009 Brazil 118 MIN Drama
Director: Eduardo Valente
Cast: Dedina Bernardelli, Raphael Sil, Márcio Vito, Nívea Magno, Luciana Bezerra, Leticia Tavares and João Pedro Celli
Rio de Janeiro, present day. A police officer has to make a quick, difficult decision when he sees himself caught up in a hostage situation in a middle-class home. Spanning from [...]

Jean Charles – Fri April 30th at 7:45pm

 (Jean Charles)
2009 Brazil/UK 93 MIN Drama
Director: Henrique Goldman
Cast: Selton Mello , Vanessa Giácomo , Luís Miranda , Patrícia Armani , Maurício Varlotta
A Brazilian girl comes to live with her cousin in London. He has already carved out a life for himself there; she hopes to do the same. It is 2005, a year in which [...]

Love Stories Last Only 90 Minutes – Wed April 28th at 8:15pm

 (Historias de Amor Duram Apenas 90 Minutos)
2009 Brazil 90 MIN Romantic Comedy
Director: Paulo Halm
Cast: Caio Blat, Maria Ribeiro, Luz Cipriota, Daniel Dantas and Lucia Bronstein
 Zeca is a young writer who lives in deep inactivity and cannot find a way to finish his novel. Everything seems to change, though, when he starts to suspect that his [...]

Cabeça a Prêmio – Wed April 28th at 8:30pm

(Cabeça a Prêmio)
2009 Brazil 104 MIN Drama
Director: Marco Ricca
Cast: Fúlvio Stefanini, Otávio Muller, Ana Braga and Alice Braga
Decadence, power, betrayal. Three stories get intertwined in the arid border landscape – the end of the line where Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia meet. A land of strayed away, forgotten, disillusioned characters. An important cattle farmer and smuggler, [...]

Elvis & Madona – Fri April 30th at 6:00pm

 (Elvis & Madona)
2009 Brazil 105 MIN Comedy
Director: Marcelo Laffitte
Cast: Igor Cotrim, Sergio Bezerra, Maite Proenca, Buza Ferraz and José Wilker
Madonna is a transvestite who lives a relative normal life, with an apartment in Copacabana and stable employment. She works hard as a hairdresser to achieve the dream of producing a musical show with drag queens. [...]