Culture: Brazil

Brazil’s answer to the Oscars will hand out 32 trophies tonight at Rio’s Theatro Municipal, where Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Cannes and Oscar-nominated thriller “O Agente Secreto” arrives as the runaway favorite in its 25th-anniversary edition.

Illustrative photo

The ceremony

Brazil’s film industry gathers tonight at the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro for the 25th Prêmio Grande Otelo, the awards night widely described in Brazil as the country’s Oscars. The ceremony, organized by the Academia Brasileira de Cinema e Artes Audiovisuais (ABCAA), begins at 8:15 pm Brasília time and will be streamed live on the Academy’s YouTube channel and broadcast on pay-TV channel Canal Brasil.

Presenting the main event on stage are actresses Marieta Severo and Silvia Buarque, a real-life mother-daughter pairing; Buarque stepped in after Andréa Beltrão, originally announced for the role, dropped out. Director Jeferson De and journalist Simone Zuccolotto will host the Canal Brasil broadcast, while Maria Clara Senra and Kiko Mollica conduct red-carpet interviews outside the theater.

In total, 32 trophies will be awarded across feature films, documentaries, animation, short films and television series. Of those, 31 are chosen by the Academy’s more than 300 professional members through a secret electronic ballot audited by PwC Brasil — the same firm that tabulates the Oscars — while one prize, the Grande Otelo de Melhor Filme pelo Júri Popular, is decided by open public vote among finalists in the fiction, comedy and documentary categories.

Frontrunners and top nominees

No film enters the night with more momentum than “O Agente Secreto” (The Secret Agent), Kleber Mendonça Filho’s political thriller starring Wagner Moura, which leads all productions with 18 nominations. It is nominated for Best Film alongside Best Direction, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Visual Effects, Score, Sound and Makeup, plus multiple acting slots including Wagner Moura for Best Actor and Tânia Maria for Best Actress.

The film arrives fresh off a landmark international run: it won two prizes at Cannes, including Best Actor for Moura, then picked up four Oscar nominations in January — Best Picture, Best International Feature, Best Actor and the inaugural Best Casting award — tying “City of God” as Brazil’s most Oscar-nominated film, before leaving the March ceremony without a win. Its competition for Best Film includes “Homem com H” (Esmir Filho), “Manas” (Marianna Brennand), “O Filho de Mil Homens” (Daniel Rezende) and “O Último Azul” (Gabriel Mascaro), the last of which also leads the field among Globo-affiliated productions with 12 nominations.

The Best Director race pits Mendonça Filho against Daniel Rezende, Esmir Filho, Gabriel Mascaro and Marianna Brennand. Best Actor brings together Wagner Moura, Rodrigo Santoro (“O Filho de Mil Homens”), Jesuíta Barbosa (playing singer Ney Matogrosso in “Homem com H”), Irandhir Santos, Ary Fontoura and Antonio Pitanga, while Best Actress lines up Tânia Maria against Camila Pitanga (“Malês”), Carolina Dieckmann, Denise Weinberg and Jamilli Correa. Santoro, Camila Pitanga and Johnny Massaro each carry two nominations into the night.

Grande Otelo’s legacy

The award traces back to November 1999, when Brazil’s Ministry of Culture created the Grande Prêmio Cinema Brasil as part of a state push to rebuild an industry left for dead after President Fernando Collor de Mello ended government support for filmmaking in 1990 — a collapse so severe that just three Brazilian films were released in 1992. The first ceremony, held on 12 February 2000 at the Palácio Quitandinha in Petrópolis and hosted by Regina Casé, honored 1999’s films.

The newly founded Academia Brasileira de Cinema took over the award in 2002, renaming it the Grande Prêmio do Cinema Brasileiro and moving the ceremony to the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, where it has largely remained since. The prize carried sponsor names for years — including “BR” (Petrobras’ fuel distributor), “TAM” and “Vivo” — before dropping corporate branding entirely in 2010.

In November 2023, the Academy renamed the ceremony the Prêmio Grande Otelo, folding in the name long used for its acting trophy: a gold-plated statuette honoring Grande Otelo, the stage name of actor, singer and comedian Sebastião Bernardes de Souza Prata, one of the towering figures of 20th-century Brazilian cinema. “This prize is the only one awarded by our own peers, our own colleagues,” Academy president Renata Almeida Magalhães said of the rebrand. This year’s 25th edition follows last year’s ceremony, which showered 13 wins on “Ainda Estou Aqui” (I’m Still Here) — the Walter Salles drama that went on to win the Oscar for Best International Feature.

Brazilian cinema’s current context

The ceremony lands amid ongoing friction over how Brazil funds its film industry. The Fundo Setorial do Audiovisual (FSA), the federal fund that finances much of domestic production through the national film agency Ancine, saw its 2025 budget cut by 25.67%, from a planned R$1.2 billion to R$892 million, while the broader Aldir Blanc cultural fund was slashed 84% in the same budget round. Critics tied the cuts partly to delays in forcing streaming platforms — unlike cinemas and broadcasters — to contribute to the fund.

For 2026, Ancine’s FSA-managed budget was approved at R$1.16 billion, though the agency has flagged it can only execute a portion of the funds allotted for investment and credit operations. Separately, Brazil’s federal audit court, the TCU, opened an inquiry in late April into Ancine’s spending on international promotion of “O Agente Secreto,” questioning the criteria used to expand the funds released for a film that had an approved budget of roughly R$28 million and has since grossed more than R$50 million domestically.

The funding debate unfolds against a paradox industry watchers have flagged: despite record public investment, a record number of Brazilian releases, and “O Agente Secreto’s” historic Oscar run, domestic films’ overall share of Brazil’s box office has been falling, according to reporting by BBC News Brasil. A new screen-quota decree for 2026, published by the Ministry of Culture and Ancine under a 2024 law, is one of the policy levers meant to keep homegrown films in local theaters.

What to watch during the night

The headline question is whether “O Agente Secreto” converts its 18 nominations into a dominant sweep, or whether voters spread the wealth toward rivals like “Manas,” “O Último Azul” or “O Filho de Mil Homens,” each of which carries double-digit nominations of its own. A near-clean sweep would echo last year’s “Ainda Estou Aqui” run and cement Mendonça Filho’s film as the defining Brazilian title of the current awards cycle.

Acting categories carry their own drama: Wagner Moura returns to a Brazilian stage as the favorite after his Oscar-nominated turn, while the Best Actress field — with newcomer Jamilli Correa alongside veterans Camila Pitanga and Carolina Dieckmann — is considered more open. Watch too for the Grande Otelo de Melhor Filme pelo Júri Popular, the one prize decided by public vote rather than the Academy’s professional membership, which could hand a surprise win to a film outside the critical frontrunners.

Beyond the trophies, expect speeches to touch on the sector’s funding anxieties and the TCU inquiry shadowing the night’s biggest contender. With the ceremony marking the Academy’s 25th anniversary and unfolding on Rio’s grandest stage, organizers and nominees alike are expected to use the platform to make the case for sustained public investment in Brazilian film.

Frequently Asked Questions

When and where is the Prêmio Grande Otelo 2026 ceremony?

The 25th Prêmio Grande Otelo takes place tonight, Tuesday, 4 August 2026, at the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, starting at 8:15 pm Brasília time. It will stream live on the Academia Brasileira de Cinema’s YouTube channel and air on Canal Brasil.

Which film has the most nominations this year?

“O Agente Secreto,” directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and starring Wagner Moura, leads with 18 nominations, including Best Film, Best Direction and Best Actor. The film previously earned four Oscar nominations in 2026, tying “City of God” for the most ever by a Brazilian production.

Why is it called the Prêmio Grande Otelo?

The award began in 2000 as the Grande Prêmio Cinema Brasil, later becoming the Grande Prêmio do Cinema Brasileiro under the Academia Brasileira de Cinema. It was renamed Prêmio Grande Otelo in November 2023, honoring actor Grande Otelo, whose name had long been attached to the ceremony’s acting trophy.