Bio

Anna Azevedo. Brazilian audiovisual artist based in Rio de Janeiro. Anna's works are focused on documentaries and influenced by poetry and the visual arts. By approaching the documentary genre from a hybrid cinematic perspective, Anna’s artistic practice aims to explore the cinematic pathways to dealing with archives and memory as a critical reflection on our contemporary world and the future.

Her recent feature documentary, “Saudade do Futuro” [Saudade for the Future, December 2021], received the Best Movie Award at the Brasília Film Festival, the most traditional Brazilian film festival. Now, she drives the TV series “Sem Bloqueio” (1st and 2nd seasons) regarding the Brazilian Female Volleyball Team in its journey toward the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Since 2003, her works have been shown in prestigious film forums, museums, and galleries in Brazil and abroad, including the MoMA (New York), Somerset House (London), and Biennials Mercosur 2018, Montevideo 2019. And festivals such as the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), the International Rotterdam Film Festival, Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, Uppsala, Jihlava, Sheffield, Palm Spring, Cinema Verité (Iran), Mostra de S. Paulo, and It's all true. 

Artist resident at the Arsenal Living Archive Residency — Arsenal Institute für Film und Videokunst Berlin, Germany, 2018. And at the Rio Arts Occupation London — London Olympic Games Official Program, London, 2012.

Curator of the exhibition “Letter from a Guaraní Woman in Search of the Land Without Evil” (Savvy Contemporary as part of the Berlinale Forum Expanded Program 2020). 

Former Berlinale Talents alumni (2005), Berlin Today Award winner (“BerlinBall”, Berlinale 2006). At the Berlin International Film Festival, she has also shown the movie essay “Dreznica” (Berlinale Shorts 2008), and “In Search of the Land without Evil” (Berlinale Generation 2017).

In 2013, Anna presented the video “Hunter's Day” at the Venice International Art Exhibition, Latin American Pavilion, as part of Harun Farocki and Atje Ehmann's “Labour in a Single Shot”. And the video “Our Life Is Not a Game”, about the First World Indigenous Games, was shown at the Biennials Mercosur 2018 and Montevideo 2019.

Academic background: graduation degree in journalism, studies in cinema, visual anthropology, Brazilian literature, and a Master’s Degree in Cinema (“The Power of Ruin-Image in the Poetry of Cinema”—PUC RJ, 2014). She also studied directing with Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami (2005) and scriptwriting at the Escuela de Cine y TV de San Antonio de Los Baños, Cuba (2007).

• Selection Committee - São Paulo Short Film Festival
• Selection Committee - Fulbright Foundation (EU) - Fellows of the Masters in Fine Arts program in Film Script scholarship in the United States, 2018
• Script consultancy - Audiovisual Scriptwriting Workshop - Curta Cinema, 2018
• Script consultancy - Produtora Escola Project - NGO Cinema Nosso, 2017
• Selection Committee - XII Postgraduate Seminar - Cinema Studies -  PUC-Rio, 2015
• President of the Jury - Rio de Janeiro Intl. Film Festival - New Directions/ Novos Rumos - Premier Brazil, 2013
• Jury Member - 11th Festival Goiânia Mostra Curtas, 2011
• Jury Member  - International Women's Film Festival - Femina, 2011
• Documentary Doctoring - Casa Curta-se, Sergipe, 2010
• Script consultancy - Sal Grosso Project - Universitary Scrip Workshop, 2010
• Member of the Jury 16mm films - 41st Brasília Festival, 2008
• Member of the Jury  - 3rd International Disability Films Festival - Assim Vivemos, 2007
• Member of the Jury  - International Animation Festival, 2006
• Member of the Jury  - X Mostra PUC RJ - III Mostra Curtas, 2006
• Member of the Jury   - Digital Shorts - Sergipe Ibero-American Film Festival, 2004
• Selection Committee 35mm Short Film - 36th Brasília Festival, 2003

• “The Power of Ruin-Image in the Poetry of Cinema” - Master's Thesis - PUC RJ
• "Dreznica"- Garupa Magazine. Nr 9. 2010
• "Dreamlike journey in the darkroom - Abbas Kiarostami" - O Globo Newspaper - Cultural Section, p. 10 - 10, 17 Apr. 2016.
• Preface. "Niterói". Cahiers du voyage by Joaquim da Fonseca. Casa 21. RJ, 2012.
•  "The frame-space of our memory". Carbono Magazine, online, p. 1, 2013.
• "Essay: How Blind People Experience a Blackout". Jornal O Globo - Logo, p. 35 - 35, 29 Nov. 2009.
• "The veil (does not) veils vanity" - O Globo Magazine - Guest Columnist, p. 36 - 36, 22 Nov. 2009.
•  "Brazil: what do we still need to do?". Adenauer Books; n 3. 1ed.RJ: Konrad Adenauer Foundation, 2006, v. 7, p. 1-181.
• "Wrong way?"  O Globo newspaper - Politics, p. 10 - 10, 23 Aug. 2008.
• "Inspired by the Primary" - O Globo Newspaper - Second Section - Cover, 14 Nov. 2004.
• "Two examples of documentary styles". Jornal do Brasil - Caderno B - Film in question, p. B3 - B3, 08 Dec. 2004.