Cannes 2025: The 10th Directors’ Factory Empowers Promising Filmmakers from Brazil and Beyond

The Directors’ Factory at the Quinzaine des cinéastes (Directors’ Fortnight) is celebrating its 10th year. This year, the filmmaker incubator is under the patronage of Brazilian filmmaker Karim Aïnouz and shines a spotlight on the state of Ceará, following the Philippines in 2024.

Film Fest Report had a lovely chat not just with the filmmakers, but also with Dominique Welinski, the French producer who launched this unique collaboration in 2013.

With a focus on Brazil, four directors teamed up with international colleagues to create short films highlighting the natural beauty of Ceará—sand dunes, mangroves, and water—while centring women as a common narrative thread. These aesthetically crafted films also explore themes of sexual abuse.

Ary Zara (31) and Stella Carneiro (38) co-directed the western-styled short The Cowgirl, the Showgirl and the Pig.

“I think it was a huge exercise for Stella and me. In our cinema, we tend to be very political. I’m a trans man and Stella is a Black woman. So, we often feel the need to say everything we want to say—to make sure the message is clear. But in this film, we tried something different: to let go of words and see what the images could say. And in the end, we felt that the images alone could say much more than what we could express through dialogue,” said Ari.

His co-director Stella agreed: “There’s something about westerns—they’re very open. But sometimes, when they go for close-ups, it’s all about the eyes. We were really trying to work within this genre and create something very different.”

Both describe themselves as fire signs, bringing intensity and commitment to their collaboration. “Even though we both speak the same language, Portuguese, we sometimes struggled to communicate. We were two very different people thrown into a situation out of nowhere. But in the end, everything turned out positively. Our relationship grew stronger, and so did the film. So, it was good,” they said in unison.

Luciana Vieira and Marcel Beltrán (40) co-directed Blind Spot, a story about Marta, a female engineer whose work at the docks becomes a bone of contention of an arrogant supervisor belittles her skills and tries to control the women working under him.

“It’s definitely a challenge to be an educated woman working in a man’s world like the docks,” said Luciana. Marcel added, “There’s always this romantic idea of going to a place you don’t know, meeting someone, and making a film together. Both of us were fascinated by the docks—their expanse, the mess, and the hidden corners. When we saw the port of Fortaleza, we knew that’s where our story would unfold. Two hours later, we were wearing hard hats and walking through the port.”

Marcel shared that his filmmaking path has naturally gravitated towards telling women’s stories. “My first film was about a woman. The second one, also about a woman. The third—again, a woman. Maybe it’s about understanding my mom. Maybe it’s about learning to see through a woman’s eyes.”

Why Blind Spot? “It’s central to the film. Marta is an engineer fixing cameras, ensuring there are no blind spots—yet she herself is caught in one. It’s a political metaphor,” he explained.

Bernardo Ale Abinader (37) and Sharon Hakim (31) teamed up on Como Ler o Vento (How to Read the Wind), which follows an elderly healer and a young Indigenous woman who may be her successor. The young woman, however, struggles with the idea and with “reading the wind”—a metaphor for accepting the intangible.

“Wind is invisible, but you can listen to it,” said Bernardo. “So, we knew that the sound had to be precise and immersive. We always wanted to make a sensorial movie—one where the audience could feel the wind with the character.”

The pair worked intensely on the sound design and music. Sharon added, “We used some fun tricks—like wind blowers—to create movement in curtains when the wind escapes.”

Bernardo drew inspiration from his Amazonian roots: “In the Amazon, there are many traditional healers—some Indigenous, some not—who carry ancestral knowledge. One moment in the film, where a character spits plastic, came from a story I read where someone expelled plastic during a healing ceremony.”

“We knew we wanted to work with Isabella Catanho, our lead actress, and it naturally evolved. Watching her walk in the wind, listening to it—it brought the story to life,” said Sharon.

The fourth film, A Beast in the Mangrove, directed by Wara (31) and Sivan Noam Shimon (40), is a visual treat. A mystical tale, it follows a woman in a mangrove who, after falling prey to a male predator, gains supernatural powers to defeat the evil that marked her.

“The mangrove was perfect—between sea and river, full of mud and roots. It became a character in itself,” said Wara.

Filming was extremely challenging, as every shot was exterior. “The tide was always shifting. The week we shot, it rained heavily. We had to rethink everything on the spot. We made lists: shoot in heavy rain? In drizzle? We adapted,” recalled Sivan.

The story is inspired by the Brazilian myth of the Headless Mule. “It’s about a woman cursed for having a relationship with a priest—she becomes a mule with fire for a head. It’s a misogynistic tale. We wanted to reclaim and reframe it—tell it from a place of power and transformation,” concluded Wara.

Our reporters are on the ground in Cannes, France, to bring you exclusive content from the 78th Cannes Film Festival—explore our coverage here.