Marcos Palmeira Makes Directorial Debut with Amazon-Set ‘Seduction,’ Premiering at Miami Brazilian Film Festival
A Brazilian film shot along the Tapajós River in the Amazon will make its world premiere on 11 September at the 30th Inffinito Brazilian Film Festival in Miami. "Seduction" (Sedução) is the directorial debut of Marcos Palmeira, an actor with more than five decades of credits across Brazilian telenovelas, series and films. He co-directs with his father, Zelito Viana — a veteran producer of Cinema Novo, the 1960s movement that reshaped Brazilian cinema, and director of features including Villa-Lobos: A Life of Passion. (Variety)
The story follows Paulo, a renowned actor played by Palmeira, who travels to the Amazon after learning of his father's death there. He sets out to settle his father's unfinished affairs, and the plot threads through illegal land grabbing — a persistent flashpoint in the region. Camila Morgado co-stars as Sara Teixeira, and Dira Paes plays Maria Rita Martins. (Variety)
Principal photography took place in Alter do Chão, a riverside community in Pará state on the Tapajós, a major tributary of the Amazon. The setting is not decorative: the film's conflicts are rooted in the disputes that shape daily life in the region, where land titles collide with informal occupation and extractive pressures. (Variety)
The festival itself carries scale. The Inffinito Brazilian Film Festival, described as the largest Brazilian film festival held outside Brazil, stages editions in Miami, New York, London, Vancouver, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Shanghai and several other cities. Its Miami edition runs 3–12 September 2026 at O Cinema South Beach, with the "Seduction" premiere landing on the penultimate day. After the theatrical run, films from the festival stream free worldwide from 13 to 30 September, according to the festival's website. (brazilianfilmfestival.com)
The distributor behind "Seduction" is H2O Films, whose board member Jorge Peregrino confirmed the company's involvement. H2O Films hosted a panel during the Gramado Film Market at the 2026 Gramado Film Festival in southern Brazil, a key industry showcase. The company is also releasing Miguel Faria Jr.'s documentary Tom Jobim – Esse Seu Olhar in Brazilian cinemas during the week of 25 January, timed to the 100th birthday of composer Antônio Carlos Jobim, who died in 1994. (Variety)
What makes this premiere stand out is the family dimension behind the camera. A father-and-son directing pair, one a foundational figure of Brazilian cinema and the other a beloved face of its television screens, turning their shared craft toward a story set in the Amazon. That the film was shot on location along the Tapajós, rather than on a soundstage, gives the land-grabbing themes an immediacy that studio sets could not supply.
For audiences outside Brazil, the Inffinito festival circuit has long been a reliable entry point — a curated window into a national cinema that travels less than it should. A free streaming window after the Miami screenings widens that access considerably.
