'Feito Pipa,' directed by Allan Deberton, has been selected by the Brazilian Academy of Cinema to represent Brazil at the Oscars. Its chances of advancing in the international feature race depend on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which is due to announce its shortlist on December 16.

The film follows Gugu, a boy who plays soccer but also enjoys makeup, dancing and painting his nails. His father, Batista, played by Lázaro Ramos, disapproves of interests he associates with femininity. After Gugu’s mother dies, Batista remarries and has another child, while Gugu lives with his grandmother, Dilma. Their close relationship is tested when she becomes ill and begins losing her memory.

A rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” sung by grandmother to grandson, becomes a poignant expression of their bond and a promise of acceptance. The film spends more time on Gugu’s daily life with Dilma, his friends and his father’s family than on his rejection by Batista, whose difficulty accepting his son is shaped by the world around him.

Deberton said he wanted to address broader social questions without making the story relentlessly bleak. As Dilma tries to recover her memories, she also offers clues about a territorial conflict affecting the town of Quixadá. The family story quietly reflects wider arguments over traditional values and LGBTQIA+ and women’s rights in Brazil.

The film won two awards at the Berlin Film Festival, where it premiered in February, and moved audiences at its first Brazilian screening, at the Gramado Film Festival in August. Yuri Gomes, 12, makes his first film appearance as Gugu, while Teca Pereira, 74, plays Dilma. Pereira, a veteran stage actor, said opportunities for Black performers have increased over the past decade, with more significant roles available.

The film also portrays the role grandparents play in raising children. Research by Data8 and Noz Inteligência this year points to older Brazilians taking on more caregiving responsibilities and expenses for their grandchildren, a pattern also associated with paternal abandonment.

Despite its international reception, 'Feito Pipa' faces a challenging Oscar campaign, according to the source. Its predecessors 'I’m Still Here' and 'The Secret Agent' had larger-scale productions and more resources for promotional campaigns. Deberton’s film also focuses on subjects that may be less familiar to a broad audience, including LGBTQIA+ childhood in Brazil’s interior, while those two films were set against the backdrop of dictatorship-era repression.

Deberton previously directed 'O Melhor Amigo,' a gay musical, and 'Pacarrete,' a 2020 film about a dancer overlooked by residents of Russas, his hometown in Ceará. Ramos said working on 'Feito Pipa' and the thriller 'Antártida' offered him a chance to explore different directions for Brazilian cinema. He argued that distinctive, filmmaker-led productions are helping drive the national cinema’s current momentum, while independent films still face the challenge of bringing audiences into theaters.

Sources: Folha Ilustrada.