Mário Patrocínio

Mário Patrocínio was born in Lisbon and at the age of eight moved to Japan. But when he returned, he never stopped travelling the world, always bringing back stories to tell. Founder of the production company BRO (which recently co-produced On Falling, by Laura Carreira, with Ken Loach’s Sixteen Films), he has stood out not only for his versatility across different formats – from advertising to documentaries and fiction – but also for his emotional and authentic approach to stories gathered around the globe. Whether in Brazil, with the award-winning documentary Complexo: Parallel Universe (2010), where he ventured into the dangerous Complexo do Alemão in Rio de Janeiro, or in Angola, with I Love Kuduro (2013), which follows some of the stars of this musical style that also became an urban cultural phenomenon born during the Civil War. In recent years, he has focused on fiction with the short films O Afinador de Silêncios (2023), adapted from the novel Jerusalem by Mozambican author Mia Couto, and Before the Moonrise (2024). He now comes to LEFFEST with Maria Vitória, his first fiction feature film, which he both wrote and directed, screening Out of Competition.