Vitória. Open-air-cinema and talk

Before the screenings, we invite you to thematic spotlights to get you in the mood – with prominent guests!Great trepidation and guesswork accompany the release of every expensive film production: Whether the audience will get involved with the story told, star constellation and film language and flock to the cinema en masse?

Box Office Around The World is a film festival that wants to get to the bottom of this mystery from the audience’s point of view. Unlike Hollywood productions that are designed for the global market, box office hits from other regions of the world often allow surprising insights into what moves people in Ho Chi Minh City, Rio or Bangkok.The Schlüter Courtyard is located in the heart of Berlin – and surrounded by collections from many cultures around the world.Over two weekends in August, the Box Office Around The World festival presents six current cinema productions that are audience successes and box office hits in their countries of origin, but have not yet been seen on the big screen in Germany.Together with representatives of the Berlin communities from Thailand, Argentina, Nigeria, Vietnam, Brazil and India and the curator Dorothee Wenner, the films were selected and an accompanying programme developed. Before the open-air screenings, a thematic spotlight – with a star-studded line-up – will be directed at each film.

Curator Film Programme

Dorothee Wenner is a freelance filmmaker, curator and writer based in Berlin. 
Since 1990 has been working for Berlin International Filmfestival in various positions, currently as as the delegate for the festival for the Subsahara African region. In 2009, she joined the team of the Dubai International Film Festival as programmer for films from India/Africa/Germany until the festival’s closure. She has been member of the board and jury of the Lagos based African Movie Academy Awards since inception 2005. Her latest work as filmmaker is the webseries Kinshasa Collection. Since 2020 she has been working as a consultant for film/cinema for the Humboldt Forum. Together with representatives of the communities, she curated the Box Office Around The World festival 2025 for the third time.

Vitória. Andrucha Waddington, Breno Silveira / Brazil 2025 / 112 Min. / Drama

This based on true events from 2005, on which this film is based, shocked the whole of Brazil at the time: Nina, an elderly lady played by screen icon Fernanda Montenegro, lives alone in Rio de Janeiro. Every day, she looks out of her window and sees the worst crimes imaginable. There is drug dealing, shooting, screaming, murder—all in plain sight. She has had enough of the madness and decides to do something about it. She buys a video camera, firmly believing that the documentary footage she shoots from her window will finally prompt the police to take action. And indeed, she brings sensational material to the police headquarters. At first she is dismissed as a quirky old woman, but a reporter takes up the case and discovers why the police are so strangely inefficient in this area. Nina herself becomes a target, and then her little friend Marcinho from the neighborhood, to whom she is a “surrogate grandmother,” also gets caught between the fronts…

Andrucha Waddington took over the direction of this film from Breno Silveira after his death during filming in May 2022. Dona Vitória, whose story the film tells, died in 2023 – her true identity could only be revealed after her death. Partly because the intertwining of reality and fiction is so special and unique, this film was eagerly awaited in Brazil.

Programme

- 8 pm: Talk with Leonardo Barros (producer), Sidney Martins & Dorothee Wenner (curators) in German

- 9 pm: Film screening

Participants

Leonardo M. Barros is Brazilian film and TV producer, and a partner with leading Brazilian production company Conspiração in Rio de Janeiro since 1996. His more than twenty producer, executive producer and associate producer credits in Film comprise arthouse official selections of the Berlin (3x), Toronto (5x), Sundance (3x), Venice and Cannes international film festivals; two Brazil’s official submissions to the Oscars (Best International Film); and local Brazilian multi-million admissions blockbusters. His movies have been distributed by companies such as Sony Pictures, Sony Classics, Warner Bros, Disney, Paramount and 20th Century Fox, among others. He produced several music and ethnographic documentaries for TV as well as the 2x International Emmy-nominated fiction series “Mandrake” for HBO Latin America. Leonardo M. Barros studied philosophy and business administration in Rio de Janeiro and holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the IBMEC Business School.

He is a vice-president of SICAV (Brazil Film Producers’ Guild) and a founding member of the Brazilian Film & Visual Arts Academy. Prior to joining the audiovisual industry Mr. Barros held senior executive positions in marketing at distinguished music companies such as Deutsche Grammophon (in Hamburg), PolyGram (now Universal Music) and BMG (both in Rio de Janeiro).

- 10 EUR, reduced 5 EUR
- FSK 12
- Ground Floor, Schlüter Courtyard: Entrance: Portal 5
- Portuguese with English subtitles
- Belongs to: Box Office Around The World 2025