Pedro Freire is a film, theatre and TV director, writer and producer. Graduated as Film Director at EICTV (Cuba) and in Theatre at CAL (Rio de Janeiro). His filmography includes 8 short films, shown in competition at international festivals such as Venice, Locarno, Havana, Oberhausen, Torino, Huelva, Cinéma du Réel, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. In 2016 his short film “Se por acaso”, done under the artistic supervision of Abbas Kiarostami, premiered at Locarno Film Festival. His short film Bliss earned several prizes in Brazil and premiered at Venice Film Festival. He worked as screenwriter for Ruy Guerra, assistant director to Karim Aïnouz and collaborated as director of actors or casting director for filmmakers such as Jonathan Nossiter, Marcelo Gomes, Sandra Kogut, Sérgio Machado and Cao Guimarães, in a total of 16 feature films, as well as assistant director for theatre directors Enrique Diaz and Bia Lessa. He wrote the screenplay for the feature "Hopefuls" (Ives Rosenfeld), winner of the Carte Blanche prize at Locarno 2014. Pedro directed 3 professional plays, including Harold Pinter's "Old Times", which opened in Rio in 2011 and São Paulo in 2012. He was director for 11 TV series, alongside directors Luiz Fernando Carvalho, Anna Muylaert, among others. He participated at Lincoln Center Theater's residence "Director's Lab" (New York, 2012) and at the Berlinale Talent Campus Buenos Aires (2008). He teaches classes on Directing Actors at several institutions in Brazil, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. His first feature film, Malu, will premiere at Sundance Film Festival 2024.
Malu — a mercurial, unemployed actress living with her conservative mother in a precarious house in a Rio de Janeiro slum — tries to deal with her strained relationship with her own adult daughter while surviving on memories of her glorious artistic past.
Yara de Novaes (Leading Actress - Malu ), Juliana Carneiro da Cunha (Leading Actress - Lili), Carol Duarte (Leading Actress - Joana)
Mauro Pinheiro Jr. (Cinematographer), Marilia Moraes (Editor), Daniel Turini (Sound Designer )
Tatiana Leite
Pedro Freire