While serving on the jury for the Amazonian Showcase at the 2024 Olhar do Norte Festival, Bernardo Abinader received great news: the Amazonian director was one of eight selected for the next edition of La Factory des Cinéastes. This initiative from the Cannes Film Festival aims to discover new cinematic talents from around the world and, this time, was supported by Karim Ainouz (Motel Destino) in selecting professionals from Brazil’s North and Northeast regions.
Bernardo is part of one of the four duos tasked with co-writing and co-directing a short film. The director of the award-winning O Barco e o Rio will collaborate with Sharon Hakim (France/Egypt), who wrote and directed the musical short The Great Night. In 2024, Sharon will also write and direct The Devil and the Bicycle, filmed in Lebanon, and Nostalgia for the Dodos, which has already been pre-licensed by Canal+ in France. She will participate in La Factory with her first feature project, Mermaid Avenue, currently being developed by Marie Legrand at Les Films du Tambour.
In 2025, ten years after its Chilean edition, La Factory des Cinéastes will return to Latin America, specifically to Ceará, Brazil. The project is co-produced by Janaina Bernardes (Cinema Inflamável, Brazil) and Dominique Welinski (DW, France), the founder and curator of the program, in partnership with the Government of Ceará, through the Department of Culture, represented by the Mirante Institute and the Dragão do Mar Institute, with support from the Paradiso Project.
In addition to O Barco e o Rio, Bernardo Abinader has directed the short films Os Monstros, Amém, and A Goteira. A graduate in audiovisual studies from the University of the State of Amazonas, he recently shot Dia dos Pais alongside Adanilo. Currently, he is preparing to direct the feature film of the five-time Kikito winner at the Gramado Film Festival, with filming scheduled for 2025.
