Kleber Mendonça Filho (; born 3 November 1968) is a Brazilian film director, screenwriter, producer, and critic.

Life and career

With a degree in journalism from the

Federal University of Pernambuco Federal University of Pernambuco ( pt, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, UFPE) is a public university in Recife, Brazil, established in 1946. UFPE has 70 undergraduate courses and 175 postgraduate courses. , UFPE had 35,000 students and 2,000 ...

, Kleber Mendonça Filho began his career as a film critic and journalist. He wrote for newspapers such as

Jornal do Commercio Jornal do Commercio was a newspaper published in Rio de Janeiro. It was founded in 1827 by French journalist Pierre Plancher. It was the oldest newspaper in circulation in South America South America is a continent entirely in the Weste ...

and

Folha de S. Paulo ''Folha de S.Paulo'' (sometimes spelled ''Folha de São Paulo''), also known as simply ''Folha'' (, ''Sheet''), is a Brazilian daily newspaper founded in 1921 under the name ''Folha da Noite'' and published in São Paulo by the Folha da Manhã co ...

, for magazines such as Continente and Cinética, and for his own site, CinemaScópio. As a director, he experimented with fiction, documentary, and video clips in the 1990s. He migrated from video to digital and 35 mm film in the 2000s. Over the course of that decade, he made several short films, including ''A Menina do Algodão'' (co-directed by Daniel Bandeira, 2002), ''Vinil Verde'' (2004), ''Eletrodoméstica'' (2005), ''Noite de Sexta Manhã de Sábado'' (2006), and ''Recife Frio'' (2009), as well as a feature-length documentary, ''Crítico'' (2008). ''O Som ao Redor'' (''

Neighbouring Sounds ''Neighboring Sounds'' (Portuguese: ''O Som ao Redor'') is a 2012 Brazilian drama film directed and written by Kleber Mendonça Filho, produced by Emilie Lesclaux and starring Irandhir Santos, Gustavo Jahn and Maeve Jinkings. The film was scree ...

,'' 2013) was Mendonça's first feature-length drama, winning numerous awards. Film critic AO Scott of ''The New York Times'' included it in his list of the 10 best films of 2012.

Caetano Veloso Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso (; born 7 August 1942) is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo, which encomp ...

, in his column in the newspaper O Globo, classified it as "one of the best movies made recently in the world ". The critic Lucas Salgado of AdoroCinema website, gave the film a score of 5 out of 5, writing, "The film talks in a subtle way and uses sound so rarely seen in world cinema." Lucas reported that the movie is "beautiful, fun, scary and captivating," and also said "it's not a movie that needs to shout to be heard, does not need big dramatic scenes to reach its goal or even to tell a story." In 2016, his next feature film, ''

Aquarius Aquarius may refer to: Astrology * Aquarius (astrology), an astrological sign * Age of Aquarius, a time period in the cycle of astrological ages Astronomy * Aquarius (constellation) * Aquarius in Chinese astronomy Arts and entertainme ...

'' premiered in competition at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

and was later nominated for Best International Film at the 32nd Independent Spirit Awards and the

César Award Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol * ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt * César Award, a French film award Places * Cesar, Portugal * C ...

for best foreign film, but lost to

Maren Ade Maren Ade (; born 12 December 1976) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer. Ade lives in Berlin, teaching screenwriting at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. Together with Janine Jackowski and Jonas Dornbach, she ...

's ''

Toni Erdmann Toni, Toñi or Tóni is a unisex given name. In Spanish, Italian, Croatian and Finnish, it is a masculine given name used as a short form of the names derived from Antonius like Antonio, Ante or Anttoni. In Danish, English, Finnish, Norwegia ...

'' and to

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (''Poor Cow'', 1967), homelessne ...

's ''

I, Daniel Blake ''I, Daniel Blake'' is a 2016 drama film written by Paul Laverty and directed by Ken Loach. The film stars Dave Johns as Daniel Blake, a middle-aged man who is denied Employment and Support Allowance despite being declared unfit to work by his ...

'', respectively. In 2013, he was the jury president of the

Semaine de la Critique Critics' Week (french: link=no, Semaine de la critique), until 2008 called International Critics' Week ('), is a parallel section to the Cannes Film Festival organized by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. It was created in 1962 after the Fre ...

section of the

2017 Cannes Film Festival The 70th Cannes Film Festival took place from 17 to 28 May 2017, in Cannes, France. Spanish film director and screenwriter Pedro Almodóvar was the President of the Jury for the festival and Italian actress Monica Bellucci hosted the opening and ...

. His third film, ''

Bacurau ''Bacurau'' () is a 2019 Brazilian-French weird western film written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles. It stars Sônia Braga, Udo Kier, Bárbara Colen, Thomas Aquino, Silvero Pereira, and Karine Teles. The film, a co ...

'', written and directed with Juliano Dornelles, won the Jury Prize at the

2019 Cannes Film Festival The 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 14 to 25 May 2019. Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu served as jury president. The Palme d'Or went to the South Korean film ''Parasite'', directed by Bong Joon-ho; Bong became t ...

, shared with '' Les Misérables''. Mendonça's films have received more than 120 awards in Brazil and abroad, with selections in festivals such as New York, Copenhagen and Cannes (Quinzaine des réalisateurs). Film festivals in Rotterdam, Toulouse, and Santa Maria da Feira have presented retrospectives of his films. He has served as programmer of cinema for the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mendonca, Kleber Filho 1968 births Living people Brazilian film directors People from Recife Federal University of Pernambuco alumni Brazilian screenwriters Brazilian film producers Silver Condor Award for Best Ibero-American Film winners