Cássio Pereira dos Santos
Brazil
Scriptwriter, Film Director, Production
biography
Born in 1980 in the city of Patos de Minas, Brazil, and also with origins in Cruzeiro da Fortaleza , Cássio Pereira dos Santos studied cinema at the University of Brasília, where he directed fiction and documentaries projects. At the beginning of his career (2000-2006), he worked as a production assistant and editing assistant in several production companies in Brasília, in dozens of TV commercials, institutional videos, shorts films and productions for the government. He also worked as assistant director on several productions from Brasilia, such as the feature-length documentary “Dom Helder Camara, O Santo Rebelde”, by Erika Bauer. Still in the Federal District, he worked as a producer at TV Escola, a channel of the Ministry of Education, where he supervised the production of documentary series for television.
In addition to providing services in films by fellow directors, he wrote and directed eight short films, among them A Menina Espantalho (DF, 2008) and Marina não vai à praia (MG, 2014). His films have been selected at several international film festivals, including the Warsaw Film Festival, OutFest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival, Aspen ShortsFest, Palm Springs, Hamburg Short Film Festival, São Paulo International Film Festival, Prix Jeunesse Munich, Brasília Film Festival of Brazilian Cinema, Tiradentes Film Festival, Molodist - Kiev International Film Festival, Durban International Film Festival and others events. His works have received more than 70 awards. As a screenwriter, Cássio has contributed to films such as Guigo Offline, directed by René Guerra for Brazilian television, winner of the Best Brazilian Feature Film Award at the Mix Brasil Festival. In 2017, his script “A Terra e os Sonhos” was a finalist for the Cabíria Award, and on the following year it was selected for the Laboratório Novas Histórias/New Stories Lab SESC Senac.
“Valentina” (MG, 2020), his debut as a director in feature films, has already received 24 international awards, such as the Audience Award at the 44th. São Paulo International Film Festival, four awards at the Mix Brasil Festival and Best Debut Director Award at the 51st International Film Festival of India, in the city of Goa - in addition to 4 awards for Best Performance for Thiessa Woinbackk, the film's leading actress. Produced by Erika Pereira dos Santos, “Valentina” was distributed in Spain, Sweden and Japan, and was also released on Netflix Brazil and Netflix Latin America.
Cássio was recently selected by the Berlinale Talents 2021 program, Buenos Aires edition. Currently, the director and screenwriter lives in Uberlândia (Minas Gerais, Brazil), and is working on the development of his second feature and ideas for television series. The project for the feature “Temporada de Fogo”, also a partnership with producer Erika Pereira dos Santos, was selected for Vitória AV Lab and BR Lab Features 2021, where the project in development won the Vitrine Filmes Distribution Award and an invitation to attend Torino Film Lab Next Feature Film 2022 (Italy), in partnership with Projeto Paradiso and Rede Paradiso de Talentos.
company profile
Campo Cerrado Produções is a young film production company based in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Created by the siblings Cássio Pereira dos Santos and Érika Pereira dos Santos, the company has in its portfolio works selected in more than 200 national and international festivals, having accumulated around 70 awards. Among our works are the short films “Menina Espantalho” (2008), “Marina não vai à praia” (2014), as well as “Valentina” (2020), the production company debut feature. "Valentina" was selected by more than 60 film festivals, and has received 24 awards. The film as also sold to Netflix Latin America, and acquired by distributors in Brazil, Japan, Sweden and Spain.