Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelle’s Bacurau was the top winner at the 19th annual edition of the Grande Prêmio do Cinema Brasileiro, winning in six of the 14 categories for which was nominated including the awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay.
Set in a few years from now in a small village in the Brazilian sertão, Bacurau starts as the town mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants (among them Sônia Braga) notice that their village has literally vanished from online maps and a UFO-shaped drone is seen flying overhead. There are forces that want to expel them from their homes, and soon, in a genre-bending twist, a band of armed mercenaries led by Udo Kier arrive in town picking off the inhabitants one by one. A fierce confrontation takes place when the townspeople turn the tables on the villainous outsiders, banding together by any means necessary to protect and maintain their remote community. The mercenaries just may have met their match in the fed-up, resourceful denizens of little Bacurau.
Other winners of Grande Prêmio do Cinema Brasileiro announced last night via a streamed ceremony, include Marcelo Gomes’ Waiting for Carnival / Estou me guardando para quando o carnaval chegar for Best Documentary and Best Editing (Documentary), Karim Aïnouz’s Invisible Life / A Vida Invisível for Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Costume, and the Argentine film Heroic Lossers / La odisea de los Giles by Sebastián Borensztein for Best Ibero-American film.
