Ones to watch

Amazonia
Director: Thierry Ragobert
Production: Biloba Films/Gullane Filmes
Sales: Le Pacte
A French/Brazilian 3D jungle adventure film for the world market. After a plane crash, a capuchin monkey is left to fend for itself in the Amazon rainforest. 2013 premiere. Imovision distribs in Brazil.

The Art of Losing
Director: Bruno Barreto
Production: LC Barreto/Goldcrest/Globo Filmes
Sales: Goldcrest
U.S.-Brazil co-production. True 1950s love story of U.S. Pulitzer-winning poet Elizabeth Bishop and Brazilian architect Lota Macedo de Soares. Lensing in New York in June.

Bald Mountain
Director: Heitor Dhalia
Production: Paranoid/LynxFilm
Sales: Celluloid Dreams
A 1978 saga of two Rio friends seeking wealth in the colossal, open-air Bald Mountain gold mine in the Amazon rainforest. With “Elite Squad” star Wagner Moura. Lensing second half of 2012.

Brazil Red
Director: TBA
Production: Conspiracao/Pampa/Globo Filmes/RioFilme/CD
Distrib: France Televisions Distribution
This Brazil/France co-production, based on novelist Jean-Christophe Rufin’s love story, is set around France’s invasion of Rio in the 16th century. Pic/TV series. Release in 2013.

The Children of the Revolution
Director: Julien Temple
Production: TV Zero/F&ME
Sales: Ealing Metro
Rolling off October’s edition of mega-pop concert Rock in Rio 4, doc looks at social change since 1985’s Rock in Rio. U.K./Brazil co-prod. Lensing.

A completa verdade
Director: Marcos Jorge
Production: Total/Warner
Based on Jorge Amado’s novel “Os velhos marinheiros.” Pic is Jorge’s next project after his award-winning film “Estomago: A Gastronomic Story.” International fest potential. Post.

Dirty Hearts
Director: Vicente Amorim
Production: Mixer/Downtown/Globo Filmes/RioFilme
Brazilian helmer Amorim’s (“Good”) set in Brazil’s Japanese community as Japan loses WWII. Preemed at the Montreal World Film Fest last summer.

Father’s Chair
Director: Luciano Moura
Production: O2 Filmes/Globo Filmes
Buzzed-about Fernando Meirelles-produced father-son road movie, which played Sundance, establishing Moura as a talent to track. Post.

Heliopolis
Director: Sergio Machado
Production: Gullane/Fox
Respected helmer Machado’s latest pic. Kid leaves crime to join orchestra. A different approach to Brazilian favela fiction. Fox has Latin American rights. Lensing. 2013 release.

The Mountain
Director: Vicente Ferraz
Production: Tres Mundos/Primo/Verdeoro/Stopline
Distrib: Europa/RioFilme (Brazil), Fandango (Italy)
Brazil/Italy/Portugal co-prod with international cast. Helmer Ferraz’s refined WWII drama, turning on Brazilian soldiers, a partisan and a German officer lost in no man’s land in the Italian mountains. Post.

Music According to Tom Jobim
Director: Nelson Pereira dos Santos
Production: Regina
Doc by Pereira dos Santos, director of classics “Rio 100 Degrees F.,” “Barren Lives” and “Memoirs of Prison.” Tender portrait of life and work of Bossa Nova wizard Tom Jobim. Released in Brazil in January. A gala screening at Cannes as part of the festival’s Brazil Tribute.

My Sweet Orange Tree
Director: Marcos Bernstein
Production: Passaro Films
Sales: Elle Driver
Bernstein’s version of the classic teen novel. Sales to Germany, Spain, Portugal and South Korea. Completed. Imovision distribution in Brazil in December.

Neighboring Sounds
Director: Kleber Mendonca Filho
Production: Cinemascopio/Estudios Quanta
Distrib: The Cinema Guild (U.S.)
Rising helmer Filho’s reflection on violence in Brazilian society via life in a middle-class neighborhood of Recife. Rave Variety review at Rotterdam, where it won Fipresci.

On the Road
Director: Walter Salles
Production: MK2 Films/Film 4/SPAD Films/Nomadic Pics/VideoFilmes
Sales: MK2
Salles’ pic with top international cast. First screen adaptation of the classic beatnik novel by Jack Kerouac. Cannes competition.

Once Upon a Time, Veronica
Director: Marcelo Gomes
Production: REC/Dezenove/UDI
Sales: UDI
New work of art pic helmer Gomes. Young woman in Recife, Brazil, undergoes existential crisis. Post. Imovision to release in November in Brazil.

Paraisos artificiais
Director: Marcos Prado
Production: Zazen/Paramount/RioFilme/Globo Filmes/Feijao/Cigarra
Sales: Zazen
Fiction feature debut of Prado, producer of “Elite Squad” and “Elite Squad: The Enemy Within.” Love/drugs drama. Paramount releases in May.

Rio 2096
Director: Luiz Bolognesi
Production: Gullane/Buriti
Debut pic of screenwriter Bolognesi (“Birdwatchers”). Animation. 600-year-old leading character takes part in Brazil’s main historical events. 2013 release.

Roadsides
Director: Breno Silveira
Production: Conspiracao/Fox
Latest pic by helmer Silveira, of local blockbuster “Two Sons of Francisco” fame. Road movie drama. Post. Fox has Brazil, Latin American rights.

Tropicalia
Director: Marcelo Machado
Production: Bossa Nova/Mojo/VH1/Record/Américas Film Conservancy/Revolution Films
Docu about late ’60s Brazilian music/art movement tapping rare re-mastered TV Record footage. International potential. Preemed at September’s Telluride.

Xingu
Director: Cao Hamburger
Production: O2 Filmes, Globo Filmes
Sales: Rezo
New pic from Hamburger (“The Year My Parents Went on Vacation”) played Berlin’s Panorama section in February. Adventure biopic of Brazil’s Villas Boas brothers, who created Brazil’s Xingu National Park.