The Secret Agent wins the Arthouse Cinema Award at Filmfest Hamburg 2025 • CICAE

At the 33rd Filmfest Hamburg the film THE SECRET AGENT by Kleber Mendoça Filho received the Arthouse Cinema Award by the international CICAE jury. 

As the sponsor of the Award, MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein endowed the German distributor Port-au-Prince Pictures with 25,000€ to support the film’s release.

The jury in Hamburg formed by Aurel Graf (Arthouse Kinos, Zurich, Switzerland), Mustafa El Mesaoudi (Lichtblick Cinema, immergutefilme.filmdistribution, Wuppertal, Germany), and Verena von Stackelberg (Wolf Kino, Berlin, Germany) made their decision followed by this statement:

"With THE SECRET AGENT by Kleber Mendonça Filho, we honor a film that masterfully combines political force, visual brilliance and narrative depth, while celebrating cinema itself. 

Wagner Moura captivates in a nuanced and intense performance that carries the film and fills it with great emotional power. Kleber Mendonça Filho and cinematographer Evgenia Alexandrova create visually compelling images while the 160 minutes fly by. This is the essence of outstanding cinema: it captivates, moves, and resonates long after.

The Secret Agent is not only a portrait of a dark chapter in Brazil’s history, but also an example of how arthouse cinema can merge social relevance with cinematic intensity and artistic precision. The Secret Agent is at once a thriller, a political portrait, and a touching work of remembrance. The film lingers not only in the mind but also in the heart: it prompts us to reflect on politics and memory, on fear and courage, on art, cinema, and resistance. This is precisely what arthouse cinema is about."

Between thriller and tragicomedy: Kleber Mendonça Filho’s new film is a nostalgically shimmering monument to his home city of Recife. In Cannes, the film won Palms for Best Direction and Best Actor.

Brazil 1977: during the high-spirited week of carnival, Marcelo (Wagner Moura) returns from São Paulo to the coastal city of Recife. Here, he hopes to see his son again. But his return doesn’t remain unnoticed – among exuberant crowds and ever-present violence, Marcelo gets caught in a tightening web of surveillance, corruption and suspicion from which there is no escape. What begins as a personal journey, turns into a dangerous game in the shadow of the military dictatorship.

Directed by: Kleber Mendonça Filho

Script: Kleber Mendonça Filho

Cinematographer: Evgenia Alexandrova

Editing: Matheus Farias, Eduardo Serrano

Music: Mateus Alves, Tomaz Alves Souza

Cast: Wagner Moura, Udo Kier, Gabriel Leone, Maria Fernanda Candido, Hermila Guedes, Thomas Aquino, Alice Carvalho, Isabél Zuaa, João Vitor Silva, Suzy Lopes

The CICAE Arthouse Cinema Award was conceived as an impetus for a film to have a wider recognition as a work of art and to stand as a mark of quality for cinema-goers and cinephiles.