A notable five Academy award nomination for Brazil. Four for Kleber Mendonca Filho’s “The Secret Agent” (film, international feature, actor and casting), that opens in the UK on 20 February, and one for the cinematography of Adolpho Veloso on “Train Dreams”, currently streaming on Netflix.

“The Secret Agent”, which had its Rio premiere during Festival do Rio, is the 12th non-English language film to be nominated for both International Feature Film and Best Picture in the same year, “Sentimental Value” is the 13th. To date, “Parasite” is the only film to win both International Feature Film and Best Picture.

For the eighth year in a row, at least one non-English language film has been nominated in the Best Picture category. Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent)  is one of a record four non-English language performances that are nominated this year (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Wagner Moura, Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgård). The previous record of three was set in 1976 (Marie-Christine Barrault, Giancarlo Giannini and Liv Ullmann).

The Secret Agent is the sixth nomination for Brazil in the international feature film (foreign language) category. Other nominations were for “Keeper of Promises (The Given Word)” (1962), “O Quatrilho” (1995), “Four Days in September” (1997), “Central Station” (1998) and “I’m Still Here” (2024), which won last year’s award.