Updated February 15, 2026 at 4:00 AM MST
RECIFE, Brazil — Hollywood's big night is still a month away but Oscar campaigning is in full swing, especially in Brazil.
For the second year in a row, the South American country has a powerful contender for Oscar's top prizes including Best Picture and Best Actor awards. And once again Brazil is also in the running for Best International Feature — a category that hasn't seen back-to-back wins by the same country since Denmark's streak in the late 1980's.
This year's hopeful is the political thriller The Secret Agent, set in 1977 during Brazil's military dictatorship. The film takes place in Recife, the northeastern coastal city where much of it was shot.
Hollywood meets Carnival
Oscar and Carnival season collide on Recife's riverside promenade as marching bands play and revelers in bright blue and yellow flood the streets.
Towering puppets twirl above the crowd, depicting three Brazilian film icons: lead actor Wagner Moura, director Kleber Mendonça Filho and Fernanda Torres, star of last year's hit I'm Still Here.
For many the moment feels historic.
"Brazilian cinema is impressive," says Amanda Olalquiaga, a 42-year old government worker, celebrating at the parade."We have a lot of really great movies, that are recognized inside the country. But they need to be recognized around the world," she said. And it will be, she insists, once we win all the Oscars.
Movie's retro T-shirt cameo
Brazilians love a good competition and are rooting for the movie and embracing some of its most iconic 1970s paraphernalia. At the main store for Pitombeira, a local Carnival club, the group's President says he's selling out of its vintage bright yellow t-shirts, worn by actor Moura in the film.
Last year the club sold maybe 1,000 shirts, according to President Herminho Neto, the stocky, raspy-voiced leader of the local group. This year he says sales have soared past 7,000.
"Pitombeira has a hot foot," says Neto, making a play on a local Portuguese expression used by soccer fans to imply his club will bring good luck to the film on Oscar night.
Recife — long overlooked — now in the spotlight
Residents are used to being overshadowed by Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and credit the movie with giving their hometown its time in the spotlight.
The city was once Brazil's cinematic powerhouse in the 1920's and houses some of the oldest cultural institutions in the country according to Ernesto Barros, Cinema Department Programmer at the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation. Barros is a longtime colleague and fan of director Kleber Mendonça Filho, who hails from Recife.
"I think that in this film, Kléber brings something more interesting and wiser," Barros says. "He shows much more wisdom in understanding the internal differences within Brazil. A country full of conflicts, social, cultural and political. Kleber's films show it all," he adds.
The Secret Agent reflects that complexity with its sprawling cast — from characters fleeing persecution to those complicit in dictatorship-era crimes. It also weaves in distinctly local references, including a surreal horror sequence inspired by a Recife urban legend about a severed, homicidal hairy leg.
Director Mendonça is often asked why he repeatedly films in his hometown.
"It's a crazy question," he told NPR. "Nobody asks the wonderful Martin Scorsese why New York, again? It just happens this is the city where I come from. And I think I know where to put the camera."
A lot of the film is shot in downtown Recife and has become a boon for local tourism. Guide Roderick Jordão has launched a three-hour Secret Agent walking tour highlighting filming locations rarely included in commercial itineraries.
"They don't go to this area, because they don't want to show the tourists this. But I don't care," he insists.
The tour costs less than five dollars and draws 25 to 30 participants on average. Most weekends are already sold out.
A favorite stop is one of the last surviving movie houses still operating downtown. Cinema São Luiz is featured in many scenes in the movie and is enjoying a renaissance with the movie's popularity.
Its majestic 1950s Art Deco red velvet decor was recently restored. The floor to ceiling stained glass flower vases flank each side of the projection screen. They light up — just as they do in the movie — during screenings of The Secret Agent.
These screenings consistently sell out, according to Cinema São Luiz's programmer, Pedro Severien.
The collective experience of cinema
Severien credits the movie with drawing people back downtown to rediscover the joy of watching a film together. An experience that he believes is increasingly lost in the era of on-demand viewing.
"Our society now has a lot of mechanisms to isolate people," he says. "And I think that the collective experience in cinema always works to bring people together. We have to make this impact in the new generations."
At a recent sold out screening of the movie, local Math teacher, 23-year-old Nicolas Magalhães, said much of it felt like a love letter to Recife.
"It's big and it shows our culture — the way we live and it's beautiful and can be valued by the world," Magalhães said.
And as Oscar night approaches he and many in Recife will be watching, and celebrating at parties — hopeful that Hollywood's spotlight will shine a little longer on Brazil's northeastern coast.
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