Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent has been submitted as Brazil‘s entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th annual Academy Awards.
The film was picked this afternoon by the Brazilian Cinema Academy.
The Secret Agent is led by Wagner Moura and also stars Maria Fernanda Cândido, Gabriel Leon, Carlos Francisco, Alice Carvalho, and Hermila Guedes. The film was produced by Emilie Lesclaux. Co-producers include Nathanaël Karmitz, Elisha Karmitz, Fionnuala Jamison, Olivier Barbier, Leontine Petit, Erik Glijnis, Fred Burke, and Sol Bondy.
The film’s synopsis reads: Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. He arrives in Recife during carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son, but soon realizes that the city is far from being the non-violent refuge he seeks.
The Secret Agent debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival where it won Best Actor for Moura and Best Director for Filho, who is best known for his last fiction feature, Bacurau. That film debuted in Competition at Cannes in 2018 and won the Jury Prize. His last feature was Retratos Fantasmas, a documentary that debuted at Cannes in 2023.
Neon will release the film in the United States. Mubi has the rights in the UK, Ireland, India, and Latin America, excluding Brazil.
Brazil picked up the Best International Feature Film Oscar last year with Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here. The decision on who would represent Brazil at the 98th Academy Awards has been a hot-button topic in the country. Filho’s The Secret Agent has been the obvious frontrunner with its two Cannes wins. However, Mascaro’s The Blue Trail has been a local box office hit. And Marianna Brennand’s debut feature Manas was given a recent boost when Sean Penn joined the production as an EP alongside Salles and two-time Palme d’Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and I’m Still Here producer Maria Carlota Bruno.
In a Sunday Instagram post, I’m Still Here star Fernanda Torres praised the strong set of submissions, enthusing: “Brazilian cinema is reborn like a phoenix”. Name-checking The Blue Trail and Manas, Torres said her personal preference was for The Secret Agent.
AMPAS will announce the shortlist for the category on December 16, with nominations to be announced January 22, 2026. The 98th Academy Awards will take place on March 15, 2026.
