"A Wolf at the Door," "Underage" win top honors at Rio Film Fest

PanARMENIAN.Net - Fernando Coimbra's A Wolf at the Door (O Lobo Atras da Porta) and Caru Alves de Souza’s Underage (De Menor) took home top honors for best fiction feature at awards ceremony during the 15th annual Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Coimbra’s first feature film is a dark thriller that follows a couple whose child is kidnapped, and the main suspect is the father’s lover. “Now we will have more visibility for the film, we want to get in the theaters and fill them up with people to see our film, so this award will help,” Coimbra told The Hollywood Reporter about what the award meant to him.

Meanwhile, Souza noted the importance of a Redentor prize: "When we make a movie, of course we want the recognition of the public, we want to provoke reactions from the public, we want the jury to recognize it."

Leandra Leal won the best actress award for her performance in Coimbra’s Wolf, as she also did last year for her performance in Eden. The actress had a special year at this edition, showcasing four films at Premiere Brasil.

“I am really happy tonight, this festival will be marked in my life forever,” Leal told THR. "The film was really hard to make it and thank God I could count with a very talented director accompanied by an incredible cast and crew."

The Audience Award went to Hilton Lacerda’s Tattoo (Tatuagem), which nabbed a total of five awards, including best actor to newcomer Jesuita Barbosa, best supporting actor (Rodrigo Garcia) and the FIPRESCI award. The film had also won at August's Gramado Film Festival.

Guilherme Azevedo’s Stories of Archangel -- A documentary about Tim Lopes (Histórias de Arcanjo - Um Documentário sobre Tim Lopes) won the documentary section of the Premiere Brazil competition, while Best Short went to Setback by Bruno Jorge.

The best director award went to Cao Guimarães and Marcelo Gomes for their film The Man of the Crowd (O Homem das Multidões), a Brazilian take on contemporary alienation loosely based on an 19th century Edgar Allan Poe story.