The Most Famous

FILM DIRECTORS from Brazil

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This page contains a list of the greatest Brazilian Film Directors. The pantheon dataset contains 2,041 Film Directors, 8 of which were born in Brazil. This makes Brazil the birth place of the 34th most number of Film Directors behind Hong Kong, and Norway.

Top 8

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Brazilian Film Directors of all time. This list of famous Brazilian Film Directors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity.

Photo of Walter Salles

1. Walter Salles (b. 1956)

With an HPI of 64.72, Walter Salles is the most famous Brazilian Film Director.  His biography has been translated into 29 different languages on wikipedia.

Walter Moreira Salles Júnior (; Brazilian Portuguese: [ˈvawteʁ ˈsalis]; born 12 April 1956) is a Brazilian filmmaker. A major figure of the Resumption Cinema in Brazil, Salles is widely regarded as one of the greatest Brazilian filmmakers of all time. His accolades include an Academy Award accepted for Best International Film, three Cannes Film Festival prizes, three Venice Film Festival prizes, two British Academy Film Awards, a Golden Bear and a Golden Globe. He first became internationally known for his film Central Station (1998), which earned two Academy Awards nominations, for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actress for Fernanda Montenegro, winning a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film as well as the Golden Bear at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival. His subsequent works include Behind the Sun (2001), The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), Dark Water (2005) and On the Road (2012). At the 97th Academy Awards, his critically acclaimed film I'm Still Here (2024) received a rare double nomination for Best Picture and Best International Feature; it won the latter, becoming the first Brazilian film to win an Academy Award in any category. Heir to Itaú Unibanco, with a fortune valued at US$4.5 billion (R$24.26 billion), Salles is the third richest filmmaker in the world.

Photo of Fernando Meirelles

2. Fernando Meirelles (b. 1955)

With an HPI of 63.85, Fernando Meirelles is the 2nd most famous Brazilian Film Director.  His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Fernando Ferreira Meirelles (Brazilian Portuguese: [feʁˈnɐ̃du mejˈɾɛlis]; born 9 November 1955) is a Brazilian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for co-directing the film City of God, released in 2002 in Brazil and in 2003 in the U.S. by Miramax Films, which received international critical acclaim. For his work in the film, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director in 2005 for The Constant Gardener, which garnered the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Rachel Weisz. He also directed the 2008 adaptation of José Saramago's novel Blindness, and the 2011 film 360. In 2019, Meirelles directed The Two Popes for Netflix. In television, Meirelles directed and produced in Brazil the HBO original series Joint Venture. In 2024, he led directing work for the crime series Sugar and the historical miniseries The Sympathizer.

Photo of Glauber Rocha

3. Glauber Rocha (1939 - 1981)

With an HPI of 61.36, Glauber Rocha is the 3rd most famous Brazilian Film Director.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Glauber de Andrade Rocha (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈɡlawbeʁ dʒi ɐ̃ˈdɾadʒi ˈʁɔʃɐ]; 14 March 1939 – 22 August 1981) was a Brazilian film director, actor and screenwriter. He was one of the most influential moviemakers of Brazilian cinema and a key figure of Cinema Novo. His films Black God, White Devil and Entranced Earth are often considered to be two of the greatest achievements in Brazilian cinematic history, being selected by Abraccine as, respectively, the second and fifth best Brazilian films of all-time. Rocha also the distinction of having the most films on Abraccine's list: 5 films. Rocha's film possess a staunch avant-garde and experimental nature, making of him a seminal figure of the new wave. His works are noted for their many political overtones, often addressing the passive-aggressive situation of the Third World, which Rocha referred to both metaphorically and objectively as "hunger" in his essay Estética da Fome (The Aesthetics of Hunger). Rocha won the Prix de la mise en scène at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival for Antonio das Mortes and the 1977 Special Jury Prize for Best Short Film for Di. Three of Rocha's films were nominated for the Palme d'Or, including Entranced Earth, which was awarded the FIPRESCI at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival and the Grand Prix of the Locarno Film Festival of the same year.

Photo of Alberto Cavalcanti

4. Alberto Cavalcanti (1897 - 1982)

With an HPI of 58.89, Alberto Cavalcanti is the 4th most famous Brazilian Film Director.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti (February 6, 1897 – August 23, 1982) was a Brazilian-born film director and producer. He was often credited under the single name "Cavalcanti".

Photo of Nelson Pereira dos Santos

5. Nelson Pereira dos Santos (1928 - 2018)

With an HPI of 57.52, Nelson Pereira dos Santos is the 5th most famous Brazilian Film Director.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Nelson Pereira dos Santos (22 October 1928 – 21 April 2018) was a Brazilian film director. He directed films such as Vidas Secas (Barren Lives, 1963), based on the book with the same name by Brazilian writer Graciliano Ramos, and his most well-known film outside of Brazil is the black comedy How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman (1971).

Photo of Bruno Barreto

6. Bruno Barreto (b. 1955)

With an HPI of 54.40, Bruno Barreto is the 6th most famous Brazilian Film Director.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Bruno Villela Barreto Borges (born 16 March 1955) is a Brazilian film director.

Photo of José Padilha

7. José Padilha (b. 1967)

With an HPI of 53.51, José Padilha is the 7th most famous Brazilian Film Director.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

José Bastos Padilha Neto (Brazilian Portuguese: [ʒuˈzɛ paˈdʒiʎɐ]; born 1 August 1967) is a Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for directing the Brazilian critical and financial successes Elite Squad and Elite Squad: The Enemy Within and the 2014 remake of RoboCop. He has won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for Elite Squad in 2008. He is also the producer of the Netflix original series Narcos, starring frequent collaborator Wagner Moura, and directed the first two episodes in the series.

Photo of Carlos Saldanha

8. Carlos Saldanha (b. 1965)

With an HPI of 53.28, Carlos Saldanha is the 8th most famous Brazilian Film Director.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Carlos Saldanha (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈkaʁluz sawˈdɐɲɐ]; born 24 January 1965) is a Brazilian animator, director, producer, and voice actor of animated films who worked with Blue Sky Studios until its closure in 2021. He was the director of Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), Rio (2011), Rio 2 (2014), Ferdinand (2017), and Harold and the Purple Crayon (2024), and the co-director of Ice Age (2002) and Robots (2005). Saldanha was nominated in 2003 for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Gone Nutty and in 2018 for Best Animated Feature for Ferdinand.

People

Pantheon has 8 people classified as Brazilian film directors born between 1897 and 1967. Of these 8, 5 (62.50%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Brazilian film directors include Walter Salles, Fernando Meirelles, and Bruno Barreto. The most famous deceased Brazilian film directors include Glauber Rocha, Alberto Cavalcanti, and Nelson Pereira dos Santos. As of April 2024, 8 new Brazilian film directors have been added to Pantheon including Walter Salles, Fernando Meirelles, and Glauber Rocha.

Living Brazilian Film Directors

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Deceased Brazilian Film Directors

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Newly Added Brazilian Film Directors (2024)

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Overlapping Lives

Which Film Directors were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 3 most globally memorable Film Directors since 1700.