No, this is not the Oscar Statuette awarded annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in recognition of the professionals of the film industry since the beginning of the Academy Awards in 1929, in Los Angeles. Neither the Palme d’Or awarded since 1955 at the Cannes Film Festival, which has taken place since 1946. Or the Golden Bear awarded since 1951, with the beginning of the International Film Festival of Berlin.
This is a more recent award, organized annually since 2002 by the Brazilian Academy of Cinema. The ‘National Oscar’, or as it is now called “The Grand Prix of Brazilian Cinema”, is an award that differs from others because it is organized by the own cinema professionals, and it elects the cinematographic and audiovisual contestants through voting, which started to be made via Internet in 2004. Except for ‘Special Tributes’, the process of choosing the winners of best foreign film and various categories of Brazilian cinema happens in two different steps: Nominations and Awards. Only the short films are pre-selected by other institutions. The members of the Academic Council receive a password for the electronic voting through the institution’s website, and PricewaterhouseCoopers is in charge of the counting of votes.
The first Brazilian film to be awarded with this prize was Brainstorm by Lais Bodansky, which won seven awards. In this edition, the Brazilian filmmaker Carlos Diegues will be honored, he is one of the leading names of the ‘Cinema Novo’, a Brazilian film movement that battled for a production with “a camera in hand and an idea in the mind”, with more content and less cost in its productions, focused on the Brazilian reality. This year, the most nominated movies of the event are The Clown, with thirteen nominations, followed by The Man of the Future and “Bróder”, both with eleven, and Little Surfer Girl, with ten nominations. The Awards will take place on October 15th at the Municipal Theatre of Rio de Janeiro, and within one week we will know who the winners of the Grand Prix of Brazilian Cinema are.
Do you know the Brazilian cinema? Any particular movie that you liked? What’s the big film festival that happens in your country?
