The film ‘The Secret Agent’ (O Agente Secreto, 2025), directed by Pernambuco-born Kleber Mendonça Filho, has been chosen as Brazil’s submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2026 Academy Awards. The announcement was made on Monday (15) by the Brazilian Academy of Cinema’s selection committee.
The film is now eligible for consideration by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood. A shortlist of nominees will be released on December 16.
“Our campaign began in May, at the Cannes Film Festival, and now it moves forward even stronger. A big thanks for all the popular support and to the selection committee for trusting this film, which has only just begun to be seen in Brazil,” celebrated Mendonça.
The plot follows Marcelo, a technology researcher who returns to Recife in 1977 to seek refuge amid the tense and repressive atmosphere of Brazil’s military regime.
Other contenders for the national submission included ‘Manas‘ by Mariana Brennand; ‘Último Azul’ by Gabriel Mascaro; ‘Baby’ by Marcelo Caetano; ‘Kasa Branca‘ by Luciano Vidigal; and ‘Oeste Outra Vez‘ by Erico Rassi.
Actor Wagner Moura, who won Best Actor in Cannes for his portrayal of Marcelo, told BdF that the character is complex and deeply layered.
‘Not a dictatorship film’
Memory has always been central to Mendonça’s work. In ‘Neighboring Sounds’ (2012), he explored the legacy of Casa-Grande & Senzala in contemporary Recife. In ‘Aquarius’ (2016), he depicted real estate speculation threatening not only urban landscapes but also affections and memory. In ‘Bacurau’ (2019), ancestral power rose up against oppressive plots. History has consistently stitched together the fabric of his filmography.
‘The Secret Agent’ follows this path. The film delves into the subtleties and pains of the 1970s, recreating the atmosphere of Recife during that period.
In an interview with BdF, Mendonça explained that the work should not be reduced to a “dictatorship film”:
“I always wanted to make a film set in the 1970s, but not exactly a dictatorship film. It’s not about guerrilla robberies for political causes, which are so common in films about Chile or Argentina. I wanted to create a historical atmosphere. That, to me, was more important than telling a literal story.”
The dictatorship is not the central theme of the script, but it looms in the fear and violence that haunted the country. The film is not only denunciation, it is also about memory. The memory of those persecuted, of families torn apart, but also the memory of Recife, its cultural life, and its affections that resisted repression.
Actress Maria Fernanda Cândido, who plays a character connecting the plot to the broader context of dictatorship, highlighted this dimension: “The film tells our own story, piecing together what was broken. It asks an essential question: what does Brazil do with its past, with its memory, with its records?”
Actor Thomas Aquino, who stars alongside Cândido, agreed: “It’s a film about the psychological dimension of the dictatorship, showing atrocities and persecution. You enter the story and feel what it’s like to be hunted. There’s anguish, action, and drama.”
Festival circuit
‘The Secret Agent’ had a double national premiere in Recife on September 10, with simultaneous screenings at São Luiz and Teatro do Parque cinemas. The film is now on a pre-release festival circuit: it opened the Brasília Festival on September 12 and will also be shown at Olhar do Norte in Manaus (Sept. 16); Maranhão na Tela (Sept. 18); CineBH in Belo Horizonte (Sept. 23); Cine Ceará in Fortaleza (Sept. 24); and at the Rio Film Festival (date to be confirmed).
These screenings are part of a series of special showings leading up to the film’s official commercial release on November 6, distributed by Vitrine Filmes.
Before arriving in Brazil, the feature had already made a splash at Cannes, winning Best Director (Kleber Mendonça Filho), Best Actor (Wagner Moura), the FIPRESCI Prize from the International Federation of Film Critics, and the “Art et Essai” award from the French art-house cinema association AFCAE.
