Vicente Amorim
director/showrunner
Director/TV:
- The Division, 2019, Globoplay. Crime-thriller. Prod. Afroreggae. With Erom Cordeiro and Silvio Guindane. Director/Showrunner. How two corrupt cops stopped the 90s kidnapping wave in Rio. Globoplay’s biggest hit ever. Nominated by Brazil's top Critics' Association for best series, best director and best actor awards.
- Espinosa. Brazil, 2015. GNT. Crime-drama. Prod. Zola, José Henrique Fonseca. With Domingos Montaigner. Director. Based on Uma Janela para Copacabana, a favorite of Brazil's noir literature. O Globo, Rio’s top paper, graded it 10 out of 10 and included it as one of the “best of 2015”.
- As Canalhas, Seasons 2 and 3. Brazil, 2014-2015. GNT. Anthology comedy series. Prod. Migdal Filmes, Iafa Britz. Head Director – all episodes. Veja magazine, Brazil's main weekly, wrote that it was “One of the best series to be aired in the last few years”. The format was recently aquired for a remake by Hulu in the US.
- Copa Hotel, Season 2. Brazil, 2013. GNT. Drama. Prod. Prodigo, Tatiana Roza, Giuliano Cedroni, Beto Gauss. With Maria Ribeiro. Head Director – all episodes.
- A Justiceira. Brazil, 1999. TV GLOBO. Action-crime series. With Malu Mader. Action Unit/Second Unit director, plus two full episodes.
- O Pais do Cinema, Brazil, 2016, Canal Brasil. 26 episodes on 26 of the most influential films of the XXI century in Brazil. Head Director - all episodes.
Vicente Amorim also directed five award-winning shorts (in Telluride, Guggenheim Screenkids Award, Rio, Gramado etc) and hundreds of commercials.
Director/Features:
- Yakuza Princess, Brazil/Japan/US, 2020 (in post). Thriller. Prod. Filmland/Warner Bros. With Jonathan Rhys Myers, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Masumi. A young woman finds out she’s the heiress of half of the Yakuza and that the other half wants her dead.
- Duetto, Brazil/Italy, 2020 (in post), Drama. Prod. Nexus/MGM. With Giancarlo Giannini, Marieta Severo, Luisa Arraes, Maeve Jinkings. A grandmother, a mother and a daughter in mourning confront their past’s secrets and their future’s challenges.
- The Division, Brazil, 2018 , Crime/Thriller. Prod. Afroreggae/Globoplay/DTF. How two corrupt cops stopped the 90s kidnapping wave in Rio. Feature version of the series. Gala at the Rio Film Festival, voted by G1 as one of the Top 5 at the festival (only Brazilian film on the list).
- Motorrad. Brazil, 2017/18. Thriller/horror. Prod. Filmland, LG Tubaldini Jr. A group of young motorcyclists meet fear and death on a trail. Official Selection at Toronto. TV Cultura, Folha de São Paulo listed Motorrad as one of the 10 most awaited films of the year. TNC gave it 5 skulls/stars and called it “a high-octane murder machine”. It was the “best film” winner at the Rio Fantastik Film Festival. O Globo rated it with [the equivalent to] 4 stars. The film has been sold and is being released all over the world, including Japan, China, Korea, USA, and most of Europe.
- Sister Dulce. Brazil, 2014. Biopic/drama. Prod. Migdal Filmes, Iafa Britz. With Bianca Comparato. A frail nun is an activist for the poor in spite of the violence in Bahia and the local Catholic leadership. One of Brazil's biggest productions of 2014 and one of the year's major releases. O Estado de São Paulo's Luiz Carlos Merten, Brazil's top critic, compared it to Kieslowski's and Resnais' best work . O Globo, Rio's main paper, said it was “impeccably directed”. Sister Dulce was nominated in ten categories for the Brazilian Academy Awards in 2015. Winner “peoples choice”, CineB 2015.
- Rio, I Love You. Brazil-US-France, 2013. Drama/Episodes. Prod. Conspiração Filmes, Empyrian Pictures, Bossa Nova Films. The Rio installment of the “Cities of Love” franchise, which includes NY, I Love You and Paris, Je T'Aime. Eleven of the world's most prominent directors, including Paolo Sorrentino, Guillermo Arriaga, John Torturro, Fernando Meirelles and Vicente Amorim, were invited to direct the Rio de Janeiro edition of the franchise.
- Dirty Hearts. Brazil-Japan, 2011. Drama/thriller. Prod. Mixer, Vicente Amorim. With Tsuyoshi Ihara. WWII thriller set in the Japanese community in São Paulo. Main Festivals: Montreal, Brazilian retrospective at the MoMA/NY, Rio, Guadalajara, Beijing, Himi Kizuna/Japan (“best foreign film” award), San Diego (“best film” award) and Punta Del Este Festival (“best actor” award). The Asahi Shimbun, Japan's biggest paper, called it “a very powerful film”, The Youmuri Shimbun said it was “superb... a tour-de-force”. G1, Revista Trip and others listed Dirty Hearts in their “best of 2012” lists. Dirty Hearts was nominated in ten categories, including “best film”, for the Brazilian Academy Awards in 2013.
- Good. UK-Germany-Hungary, 2008. Drama/thriller . Prod. Good Films, Miriam Segal. With Viggo Mortensen and Jason Isaacs. Set in Germany in the 30s, Good tells the ascension of a “good” man from literature professor to concentration camp inspector. Rex Reed called Good “an electrifying, haunting film”. For The Jewish Chronicle it is “excellent and thought-provoking”. Main Festivals: Toronto, Rome, Chicago (Closing Gala), Rio (Closing Gala) and Brasilia/FIC (“best director” award). The Hollywood Reporter and The New York Observer included the movie in their “10 best films of 2008” lists.
- The Middle of the World. Brazil, 2003. Drama. Prod. LC Barreto, Lucy, Luiz Carlos and Bruno Barreto. With Wagner Moura. Road-movie: a family travels 2000 miles across Brazil by bike looking for a job. Tenth best grossing Brazilian film in 2003. Main festivals: Toronto, San Sebastian, Rotterdam, Cartagena (“best actor” award), Havana, Natal (“best supporting actor”, award) and New Directors/New Films (Lincoln Center/NY). For New York Magazine, the film is “smart and moving”. The LA Weekly wrote that “Amorim’s filmmaking is as urgent... and brings an old-world family drama into our fidgety, insistent present”.
-Too Much Brazil. Brazil, 2000. Documentary. Prod. LC Barreto, Tibet Filme, Lucy, Luiz Carlos Barreto, Vicente Amorim. Documentary about hopes and dreams in Brazil's impoverished Northeast at the turn of the millennium. Main Festivals: Karlovy Vary, Rio, Miami Brazilian Festival (“best documentary” award). UNESCO, the UN's agency for culture, education and science, awarded the film its official seal. Nominated as “best documentary” for the Brazilian Academy Awards in 2002.