É Tudo Verdade / It’s All True – International Documentary Festival, one of Latin America’s core non-fiction film events, this weekend announced the winners of its 30th anniversary edition which ran April 3 – 13.
Directed by Carine Wallauer, Copan won the Brazilian Feature and Medium-Length Film Competition, receiving both a R$20,000 cash prize (approx. €3,000) and the It’s All True Trophy. The jury awarded the prize for “its formal boldness combined with a strong aesthetic rigor, for its originality, precision and delicacy, for the balance of its scenes and the nuances that reveal contemporary conflicts, achieving a singular poetic synthesis of the contrasts within our country.”
The same jury selected Sukande Kasáká/Ailing Land by Kamikia Kisedje and Fred Rahal as Best Brazilian Short Film, valued at R$6,000 (approx. €900). The jury noted the film’s “extraordinary strength, precision, and impact of its images, the urgency of its discourse, its sensitive presentation in contrast to the devastation caused by Agribusiness, and its refusal to reduce the complexity of its tragedy.”
Two Honourable Mentions were awarded to the Brazilian feature When Brazil Was Modern by Fabiano Maciel, and the Brazilian short film Word by DF Fiuza.
The winner of the International Feature & Medium-Length Film Competition was Writing Hawa (France, Netherlands, Qatar e Afghanistan), by Najiba Noori. The award includes a cash prize of R$12,000 (approx. €1800) and the It’s All True Trophy. The jury wrote how “few films tell the story of a nation through the lens of love and compassion that define a family immersed in a patriarchal culture — yet not confined by it. The filmmaker narrates her mother’s exceptional struggle for independence in Afghanistan, where such achievements are rarely celebrated.”
Am I the Skinniest Person You’ve Ever Seen? by Eisha Marjara (Canada), was awarded Best International Short Film, receiving R$ 6,000.00 (approx. €900). The jury acknowledged “its powerful and poetic treatment of the experience of anorexia, expressed with all the raw emotion and confusion of growing up in an immigrant family.”
Recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as an Oscar®-qualifying festival, It’s All True automatically grants winning films in both the Brazilian and International Feature/Medium-Length and Short Film Competitions eligibility for submission to the Academy Awards® in the Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short categories.
PARALLEL AWARDS
- Canal Brasil Short Film Award (Brazilian Short Film Competition): Winner: Two Niles by Samuel Lobo and Rodrigo de Janeiro) – R$15,000 (approx. €2250) and the Canal Brasil Trophy.
- Mistika Award for Best Documentary (Brazilian Short Film Competition). Winner: Sukande Kasáká/Ailing Land by Kamikia Kisedje and Fred Rahal – R$8,000 (approx. €1205) in digital post-production services.
- Maria Rita Galvão Award (Best Research in the Brazilian Competition) Winner: Bruscky: A Self-Portrait by Eryk Rocha, research by Yuri Bruscky and Natalia Lacerda Bruscky – R$ 6,000 (approx.. €900) in digitization services (Lupa/UFF), and LTO recording (ABPA/REPIA)
- EDT Awards (Association of Audiovisual Editing Professionals) – Best Editing (Short and Feature Film), awarded respectively to Word by DF Fiuza, edited by DF Fiuza, and to Bruscky: A Self-Portrait by Eryk Rocha, edited by Caio Lazaneo with assistant editor Lorena Duarte.
- An Honourable Mention was also awarded to the short film Sukande Kasáká/Ailing Land by Kamikia Kisedje and Fred Rahal, edited by Paula Mercedes and Fred Rahal.
2025 Edition – 30th Anniversary Special
This year, It’s All True 2025 showcased 86 films (features, medium-length, and shorts) from 30 countries. Retrospectives of British filmmaker Humphrey Jennings (1907–1950), regarded as “the first poet of English nonfiction cinema,” and Brazilian documentarian Vladimir Carvalho (1935–2024), one of the most significant figures in the festival’s 30-year history, were presented.
The 31st edition of the festival will run from April 9 to 19, 2026.
