Karim Aïnouz

Karim Aïnouz
Karim Aïnouz
	Aïnouz in 2024
Born	17 January 1966 (age 58); Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil
Occupation	Film director
Years active	1992–present
Known for	The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão

Karim Aïnouz (/kəˈriːm aɪˈnuːz/;^[1] Portuguese: [kɐˈɾĩ ajˈnus];^[2] born 17 January 1966) is a Brazilian film director and visual artist. He is best known for his film The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão.

Career

Karim Aïnouz was born to a Brazilian mother and an Algerian father, in Fortaleza, Ceará, in the Brazilian Northeast.^[3] He is a film director, screenwriter and visual artist.

Aïnouz's feature debut, Madame Satã, premiered at the Un Certain Regard section of the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.

His following films, Suely in the Sky, and I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You, co-directed with Marcelo Gomes, premiered at the Orizzonti of the in 2006 and 2009 Venice Film Festival.

In 2011, The Silver Cliff was presented in the Directors' Fortnight and won Best Director at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival.

In television, Aïnouz created and directed Alice, a 13 episode fiction series for HBO Brasil. His short films and installations have been shown at numerous venues including The Whitney Museum of American Art, the São Paulo Biennial, the Sharjah Biennial and Videobrasil.

As creative advisor and lecturer, Aïnouz has been invited to numerous Screenwriters Labs and institutions such as Princeton University, Wexner Center for the Arts, MIT, EICTV among others. Karim Aïnouz has been developing, alongside fellow filmmakers Marcelo Gomes and Sérgio Machado, The Center for Audiovisual Narratives in partnership with State authorities of Ceará, Brazil. Among other activities, they coordinate and work as creative advisors to the Screenwriters Lab, a one-year program committed to the development of a new generation of filmmakers, providing support throughout their projects. Since 2017, Aïnouz is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Karim Aïnouz documentary Zentralflughafen THF, premiered at the 68th Berlinale – Panorama, won the Amnesty International Film Award, and has been screened in over 10 festivals. His previous feature Futuro Beach, had its world premiere at the 64th Berlinale Competition.

In 2019 he released The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão, an adaptation of the Brazilian novel A Vida Invisivel de Eurídice Gusmão, written by Martha Batalha, depicting the struggle of two sisters against repression and bigotry in the 1950s Rio de Janeiro. The film was screened at the Un Certain Regard section of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the section top prize.

In 2021, Aïnouz released his third documentary, Mariner of the Mountains, which followed his search for his Algerian roots in Algiers, the homeland of his father.^[4]

In 2023, Aïnouz released his English language debut film, Firebrand, as part of the main competition of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. The film follows the final years of Henry VIII's reign and his wife Catherine Parr.^[5]

In 2024, Aïnouz went back to the Brazilian Northeast with the erotic thriller Motel Destino. The film had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme D'Or.^[6]

Favourite films

In 2022, Aïnouz participated in the Sight & Sound film polls of that year. It is held every ten years to select the greatest films of all time, by asking contemporary directors to select ten films of their choice.^[7] Aïnouz's selections were:

Filmography

Feature film

Year	Title	Director	Writer
2001	Behind the Sun	No	Yes
2002	Madame Satã	Yes	Yes
2004	Se fosse tudo sempre assim	Yes	No
2005	Lower City	No	Yes
2005	Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures	No	Yes
2006	Suely in the Sky	Yes	No
2006	Love for Sale	No	Yes
2009	I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You	Yes^[a]	Yes
2011	The Silver Cliff	Yes	Yes
2014	Futuro Beach	Yes	Yes
2019	The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão	Yes	No
2023	Firebrand	Yes	No
2024	Motel Destino	Yes	Yes
TBA	Rosebush Pruning	Yes	No

Documentary film

Velázquez (2015)
Zentralflughafen THF (2018)
Mariner of the Mountains (2021)

Short film

Year	Title	Director	Writer
1992	O Preso	Yes	Yes
1994	Paixão Nacional	Yes	Yes
1996	Hic Habitat Felicitas	Yes	Yes
2000	Rifa-me	Yes	No
2011	Sunny Lane	Yes	Yes
2011	Destricted.br	Yes	Yes

Documentary short

Year	Title	Director	Writer
1993	Seams	Yes	Yes
1998	Les Ballons des Bairros	Yes	No
2004	Sertão de Acrílico Azul Piscina	Yes	Yes
2014	Sunday	Yes	Yes

TV series

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Notes
2008	Alice	Yes	No	Episode "O Primeiro Dia Do Resto Da Minha Vida"
2014	Cathedrals of Culture	Yes	Yes	Episode "Centre Pompidou"

Awards

2019: Prix Un Certain Regard for The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão
2018: Amnesty International Film Prize, Berlinale, for Zentralflughafen THF
2011: Second Grand Coral Award, Havana Film Festival, for The Silver Cliff
2011: Award for Best Director, Rio International Film Festival, for The Silver Cliff
2010: Grand Prix Coup de Coeur, 22º Rencontres Cinémas d'Amérique Latin (Toulouse/France), for I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You co-directed with Marcelo Gomes.
2009: Award for Best Director, Rio International Film Festival, for I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You
2009: FIPRESCI Award, Havana Film Festival, for I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You
2009: Third Grand Coral Award, Havana Film Festival, for I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You
2006: FIPRESCI Award, 47th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, for Love for Sale
2006: Grand Coral Award, Havana Film Festival, for Love for Sale
2006: Award for Best Film, Rio International Film Festival, for Love for Sale
2006: Award for Best Director, Rio International Film Festival, for Love for Sale
2002: Gold Hugo, Chicago International Film Festival, for Madame Satã
2002: Award for Best Director, Biarritz Film Festival, for Madame Satã
2002: Award for Best Director, São Paulo Association of Art Critics Awards, for Madame Satã
1997: Award for Best Short, Ann Arbor Film Festival, for Seams
1994: Award for Best Short, Atlanta Film Festival, for Seams