The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão, directed by Karim Aïnouz won the first-ever €100,000 CineCoPro Award at the Munich International Film Festival (Filmfest München).
Rio de Janeiro, 1950. Eurídice, 18, and Guida, 20, are two inseparable sisters living at home with their conservative parents. Although immersed in a traditional life, each one nourishes a dream: Eurídice of becoming a renowned pianist, Guida of finding true love. In a dramatic turn, they are separated by their father and forced to live apart. They take control of their separate destinies, while never giving up hope of finding each other. Adapted from a novel, Karim Aïnouz’s film is an astute anti-racist melodrama that reveals the mechanisms of patriarchal society. Behind the historic backdrop lies the dream of a Brazil based on justice, equality, and diversity.
The jury explained its decision as follows: “The 2019 CineCoPro Award goes to a co-production that effectively uses a recognizable genre and builds upon outstanding camera work and engaging performances. An emotional story set largely in the past, which beautifully manages to extend the echo of history into the contemporary political climate as it delves into the status of women in Brazil.”
Director Karim Aïnouz: “This is a particularly important prize for me. I have been living in Germany for a few years now and this prize is, above all, the celebration of a long-term warm and deep collaboration with producers Viola Fügen and Michael Weber, with Pola Pandora and The Match Factory. It is a prize that highlights cultural and economic partnership between Germany and the world, and on our case, between Germany and Brazil. This prize, on one hand, confirms the strength and the vitality of Brazilian cinema today – its universality – particularly in a moment when very successful policies for the support of film production are under threat. This film is a result of these policies. On the other hand it also enhances the fact of how German cinema is becoming more international at every step – hot Germany is becoming a world-central production hub.”
Upon presenting the CineCoPro, Bavaria’s Minister of Social Affairs, Kerstin Schreyer, emphasized: “We wish to attract top-of-the-line international projects to Bavaria and celebrate them here. I’m thus very pleased to be able to present this new award funded by the Ministry of Digital Affairs today for the first time. Valued at 100,000 euros, this is the most generous award to German co-producers there is, and it will give the winners new flexibility in future filmmaking endeavors.”