Carnaval

Donaire y Esplendor

September 2017 •Spanish

In the traditional carnival of the small town called Las Tablas, there are two rival streets: Up Street and Down Street. A young couple, after an unexpected encounter at the airport, fall hopelessly in love.

Tererê Não Resolve

March 1938 •Portuguese

Apaixonados: O Filme

March 2016 •Portuguese

Three couples meet in the middle of Carnival, trying to get together in the midst of various conflicts that have the biggest party in Brazil as a scenario - and often as a cause.

Cuceteiras VII: "Cucesniff?"

May 2025 •Portuguese

Amid the explosion of colors, sounds, and excesses of Olinda’s 2025 Carnival, Cuceteiras VII: "Cucesniff?" dives into the behind-the-scenes of a house that becomes the epicenter of partying, chaos, and connection. A group of friends shares a roof during the most intense days of the year, living a routine filled with alcohol, drugs, unexpected guests, and catchphrases that go viral among revelers. Between laughter, hangovers, and confessions, the documentary captures the raw intensity of human connection when the masks come off — or multiply. A chaotic, honest, and irreverent chronicle of youth, freedom, and the unmistakable heat of Pernambuco’s carnival.

Today I Will Only Come Home Tomorrow

June 2024 •Portuguese

Each person is a Carnival and Marina knows which one she is. On the slopes of Olinda she seeks the ecstasy of carnival revelry, the music, the shouting, the heat, the joy, the love. Her journey is seen through the eyes of ten different characters, and for each of them a director lends their artistic view. But in the midst of so many people, marching bands, encounters and misencounters, how can we find Carnival?

Making Faces

July 1907 •French

Short Pathé comedy.

Memória em Verde e Rosa

June 2016 •Portuguese

The Mangueira slum is the scenario where Tantinho and the old samba composers remember stories about the slums and samba.

Biografía de un carnaval

January 1983 •Spanish

Filhos de João, O Admirável Mundo Novo Baiano

July 2011 •Portuguese

A panorama of Brazilian popular music from the 60s and 70s through the musical group Novos Baianos. A retrospective of the community lifestyle adopted by its members and the influence inherited from singer João Gilberto.

Artesanato do Samba

January 1974 •Portuguese

The making of the samba school parades, with the construction of the great cars, the decorations being spread all over the city and the hand-crafted tailoring of the costumes by apt hands that stitch together colourful and glowing materials.

Arthur et les confettis

October 2023 •French

Labyrinth

May 2016 •German

Black Orpheus

June 1959 •Portuguese

Young lovers Orfeu and Eurydice run through the favelas of Rio during Carnaval, on the lam from a hitman dressed like Death and Orfeu's vengeful fiancée Mira and passing between moments of fantasy and stark reality. This impressionistic retelling of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice introduced bossa nova to the world with its soundtrack by young Brazilian composers Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

DAZZLEDDARK

October 2023 •English

Made for a show beside the seaside in Margate.

Have a Nice Carnival

Invalid date •Portuguese

Matheus, a young man with self-steem problems, goes to his grandmother's house to spend the carnaval with his family. There, he sees his old friends and finds himself atracted to a mysterious masked person who will send him on a journey of self discovery that will change his relationship with his father.

Jonah

October 2016 •Portuguese

During Carnival in São Paulo, a young man and young woman who knew each other as children meet again after many years and the social barriers that have kept them apart. Bad decisions lead the boy to hide with the girl inside a whale float.

3 Histórias da Bahia

May 2001 •Portuguese

82 Minutos

October 2015 •Portuguese

O Carnaval é de Pelé

December 2024 •Portuguese

This short film follows Pelé, a retired nurse who looks back on his time as a Mateus in the century-old Bumba Meu Boi group, Boi Tira-Teima. As he builds a new boi for the festival, he revisits the defining moments of his journey as a performer, carnival artist, and son of Mestre Gerson, the group’s former patriarch. The film explores how the way we carry our memories of the past shapes who we become in the present.

O Mundo de Arlindo

April 2022 •Portuguese

The documentary talks a little about the carnival experience that Arlindo Rodrigues had during his more than 25 years of artistic life.