The Toronto Film Critics Association announced their 2013 awards last night, and Brazilian film Neighboring Sounds (pictured) by Kleber Mendonça Filho was selected as Best First Feature.
"To get this recognition from the Toronto Film Critics Association is something I respect and appreciate, from a city where I know cinema plays such an important part. To me, as a foreign observer of Canada, Toronto also spells out 'CRONENBERG,' whose films made me want to make films," said Mendonça Filho in a statement.
Neighboring Sounds won the prize for Best Film at last year's Cinema Tropical Awards and is Brazil's official entry for the upcoming 86th Academy Awards. The film is centered on a quiet city block in the coastal city of Recife, ruled by an aging patriarch and his sons, a recent spate of petty crime has rattled the nerves of the well-to-do residents. When a mysterious security firm is brought in to watch over the neighborhood, it sparks the fears and anxieties of a divided society still haunted by its past.
The Toronto Film Critic Association also awarded Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón for Best Director for his most recent film Gravity.
