Paes and Márdila to Play Sisters in Rafaela Camelo's 'The Favorite Daughter'
Luciana Paes and Camila Márdila will star as sisters in Rafaela Camelo's next feature, The Favorite Daughter (A Filha Favorita), Variety reported on 14 September.
The casting is set. The film is the follow-up to Camelo's debut feature The Nature of Invisible Things.
Paes plays Amélia and Márdila plays Luiza. The two sisters are looking back on their past and on a difficult relationship.
The story starts when Luiza returns home after years living in Germany. She and Amélia then learn that their father has a third daughter, a revelation that sends the pair on the road.
That journey takes them through the backlands of Ceará, the dry interior region of north-eastern Brazil. As they travel, the sisters confront old history and try to rebuild their bond.
The Nature of Invisible Things, known in Portuguese as A natureza das coisas invisíveis, premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2025, Variety reported. It is now one of six films pre-selected as Brazil's possible entry for the Oscars.
The Favorite Daughter is co-written by Camelo and André Araújo. It is a Brazil-Germany co-production, meaning companies from both countries are backing and making it together, between Deberton Filmes, with Allan Deberton and Marcelo Pinheiro, and Carousel Film, with Maritza Grass and Vincent Edusei producing.
Camelo was named by Variety in 2023 as one of Brazil's talents to track. Márdila won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting at Sundance for The Second Mother and later appeared in Walter Salles's Oscar-winning I'm Still Here, Variety reported.
What makes this stand out for fans is the pairing. Paes and Márdila are both established screen actors, and Camelo is returning with a family story that moves from home to highway. No release date has been announced.
