The Secret Agent (2025 film)
The Secret Agent is a 2025 neo-noir historical political thriller film written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho. It follows Armando, a former professor caught in the political turmoil in the midst of the Brazilian military dictatorship, attempting to flee persecution and resist an authoritarian regime. The supporting cast includes Carlos Francisco, Tânia Maria, Robério Diógenes, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Gabriel Leone, Alice Carvalho, Hermila Guedes, Isabél Zuaa, and Udo Kier in his final film role.
The film had its world premiere at the main competition of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on 18 May, where it received widespread acclaim and became the festival's most awarded film, winning the Best Actor award for Moura, the Best Director award for Mendonça Filho, the Art House Cinema Award and the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film. At the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, it became the first Brazilian film nominated for Best Motion Picture – Drama, winning Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama and Best Foreign Language Film. At the 98th Academy Awards, it has been nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor for Moura, Best Casting and [Academy Award for 2025 Seattle Film Critics Society Awards|Best International Feature Film|Best International Feature Film].
It was theatrically released in Brazil and Germany on 6 November 2025 by Vitrine Filmes and Port-au-Prince Films, respectively, and was released in France on 17 December by Ad Vitam.
Plot
In 1977, during the political turmoil of the Brazilian military dictatorship, former professor and widower Armando Solimões travels during the carnival holiday to Recife, where his young son Fernando has been living with his in-laws since the passing of his wife, Fátima Nascimento. He arrives at a refuge operated by former anarcho-communist Dona Sebastiana, where he adopts the name Marcelo and befriends other political dissidents including Claudia, Haroldo and Angolan Civil War refugees Thereza Vitória and Antonio. Meanwhile, corrupt Civil Police chief Euclides and his sons Sergio and Arlindo are called in during the holiday to investigate a severed human leg that has been found inside a captured tiger shark.Armando is placed in a job by his dissident network at the city's identity card office under the alias of Marcelo, where he has a chance encounter with Euclides, who offers him his friendship and protection. Armando is visibly annoyed by Euclides's arrogant behavior, which includes harassing Hans, a Jewish Holocaust survivor who is mistakenly assumed to be a Nazi fugitive. Armando's job also affords him the opportunity to search for files on his late mother "India", of whom he has few memories. Meanwhile, in São Paulo, hitmen Bobbi and Augusto are hired by former Eletrobras executive director Henrique Ghirotti to kill Armando, with whom he has a political and personal vendetta.
Armando meets Elza, the leader of a political resistance movement in the Brazilian northeast, at the, where his father-in-law Sr. Alexandre works as a projectionist. Recording a testimony about Ghirotti's corrupt activities, Armando recounts a dinner he attended with Fátima that ended in a physical altercation with Ghirotti and his son, following remarks on the couple's lower socioeconomic class and supposed communist sympathies. Elza informs Armando that a contract killing has been ordered and instructs him to flee the country. Sergio and Arlindo dispose of the human leg in the Capibaribe River, where it suddenly revives and attacks gay men cruising in a public park at night; the story, presumably a newspaper cover-up for the political corruption and violence during the carnival week, creates a public frenzy. Augusto and Bobbi hire a local impoverished gunman, Vilmar, to find Armando. Anticipating a departure, Armando bids farewell to Dona Sebastiana and the other refugees.
The following day, Armando's cover is blown after Bobbi surveils Sr. Alexandre. Vilmar identifies Armando but fails to kill him, shooting Arlindo and a fellow police officer. Bobbi, watching from afar, chases a bleeding Vilmar through Recife's downtown and is later killed in a barbershop by Vilmar.
In the present day, history student Flavia researches Elza's resistance network through audio recordings and newspaper archives, learning that Armando was murdered and framed as a corrupt professor. Traveling to Recife, Flavia meets with Fernando, now a middle-aged doctor, who agrees to be interviewed in the hospital where he works after Flavia donates blood. The pair discuss Armando's political past and subsequent assassination, and the identity of Armando's mother. Fernando states he does not have a single memory of his father, but fondly recalls watching Jaws with his grandfather at a movie theater which has since become the hospital where he works.
Production
Development
Kleber Mendonça Filho wrote the script over three years, partially overlapping with the production of Pictures of Ghosts. It was co-produced by companies from Brazil, France, Germany and the Netherlands. The film also received subsidies from the Brazilian Fundo Setorial do Audiovisual/Ancine, the French Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée, the Dutch Netherlands Film Fund, and the Germans Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and German Federal Film Fund.The film is a neo-noir historical political thriller, heavily inspired by Robert Altman, Brian De Palma, Sam Peckinpah, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg productions of the 1970s. In a January 2026 Film at Lincoln Center event, Mendonça Filho curated some films that influenced The Secret Agent, including: John Boorman's Point Blank, Karel Kachyňa's The Ear, Elio Petri's Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, Jorge Bodanzky and Orlando Senna's Iracema, Héctor Babenco's Lúcio Flávio, Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Eduardo Coutinho's Twenty Years Later.
The Secret Agent's main motifs also echo Spielberg's Jaws, particularly in that Recife is a coastal city plagued by tiger shark attacks, while some scenes take place during a screening of Richard Donner's The Omen at the.
All the aspects of "the hairy leg" story are based on real newspaper reports from the 1970s, specially from Diário de Pernambuco, that created a public frenzy in Recife. The story allowed the press to conveniently cover-up censored news about police violence, corruption and homophobia.
The production marks Wagner Moura's first Portuguese language production in eight years. It was Udo Kier's final film role before his death in late 2025, in his second collaboration with Mendonça Filho following Bacurau.
Filming
Principal photography took place during ten weeks in 2024, shooting on location in Recife, Pernambuco. Many of the films scenes were shot in historical city's buildings, such as the and on most of Recife's colonial bridges. For the haired leg chase scenes, shooting took place in location at the Capibaribe River, featuring its usual capybara inhabitants, and at "May 13th Park". Carnival scenes were reenacted near the Aurora Street, where Recife's main carnival association parade take place. Scenes featuring the captured tiger shark and Armando teaching past were shot at the Federal University of Pernambuco campus, a state owned university.Additional scenes were shot in São Paulo, featuring Euclides and Bobbi characters. Principal photography wrapped by late August 2024. Pick-up scenes were shot in Brasilia in December 2024.
Mendonça Filho and his long-time partner Emilie Lesclaux produced the film through their film company CinemaScópio. The film also marks Russian-French cinematographer Evgenia Alexandrova's first collaboration with the filmmaker, who shot the film with Panavision anamorphic lenses and vintage camera equipment, aiming to replicate the visual style of the 1970s movies.
Post-production
The film entered post-production in September 2024, shortly after the 81st Venice International Film Festival where Mendonça Filho was a jury member for the main competition. As usual for the director's films, it features many MPB songs alongside its original score by Mateus Alves and Tomaz Alves Souza.Release
The film had its world premiere at the main competition of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on 18 May, receiving a 13-minute long standing ovation, and was the most awarded film in the festival. It competed for the Palme d'Or, winning the Best Actor prize for Wagner Moura and the Best Director prize for Mendonça Filho. A few days after its premiere, Neon acquired North American distribution rights to the film, while Mubi acquired the rights for the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hispanic America, and India.The Secret Agent had its North American premiere at the Main Program of the 52nd Telluride Film Festival. At the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival it received a gala screening the Special Presentations section. It was also screened at the Main Slate at the 2025 New York Film Festival. In October, it was screened in the "Best of 2025" section of the 20th Rome Film Festival and at the Adelaide Film Festival.
The film's Brazilian premiere took place on 10 September 2025 at the.
It received a wide theatrical release in Brazil and Germany on 6 November 2025. Neon released the film in North American theaters on 26 November. It received a theatrical release on 17 December by Ad Vitam in France.
Reception
Box office
On its opening weekend in Brazil, The Secret Agent had 273,000 admissions, grossing R$6.6 million at the box office, topping Predator: Badlands debut weekend and Black Phone 2 fourth weekend. By the end of its first full week, alongside September and October previews, the film had surpassed 500,000 admissions and R$10 million at the box office. By January 2026, The Secret Agent had more than 1.8 million admissions in Brazil, grossing R$38.2 million and surpassing Bacurau as Mendonça's highest-grossing film.In its limited release weekend in the United States, The Secret Agent grossed $71k on the 5-day opening Thanksgiving holiday, with an average $23k per theatre, beating I'm Still Here’s previous record for Brazilian productions opening weekend in the U.S. By 1 February 2026, the film had grossed $3.2 million in its limited 312 theatres run at the U.S. box office.
On its opening weekend in France, The Secret Agent had more than 100,000 admissions, grossing $726k over 186 theatres. By 25 January 2026 the film had grossed $3.2 million at the French box office, bringing its international box office total to $7.3 million.
Critical response
Steve Pond of TheWrap pointed out that "cohesiveness or coherence are not high on list of attributes", "but messiness is part of its charm". David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a 'B+' score, concluding that "always compelling, but sometimes more sedate than its material demands — is often at its most alive during its detours".Other critics praised the film for its ambition, visual style, and emotional depth. Shannon Connellan of Mashable called it “a complex, time-jumping political crime thriller” and wrote that its “compelling script, impeccable acting, and striking 1970s aesthetic” make it “impossible to look away.” Pavel Snapkou of Showbiz by PS described the film as “a bright and memorable” neo-noir political thriller, praising its “vivid, vibrant scenes” and calling Moura “electrifyingly good,” delivering “one of the best male performances of the year.” Carlos Aguilar of The Playlist hailed the film as “an imposing masterpiece steeped in history and a palpable adoration for cinema.”
Oscar submission process
Despite Mendonça Filho having been passed over twice by the Brazilian submission commission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, for two critically acclaimed productions, Aquarius in 2016 and Bacurau in 2019, The Secret Agent was expected to be the country's safe choice after its successful run in the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and the ongoing Neon strong awards season campaign.By August, the film was shortlisted alongside five other Brazilian feature films. Shortly after, reports emerged suggesting a possible snub in favor of Manas, which was supported by a lobby of 70 high-profile companies for its supposed "urgent subject in Brazil". The movement created a public uproar driven by the perception of abuse of political and personal power in the Brazilian Oscar submission process, instead of artistic merit and commercial logic.
Following the negative response to the Manas campaign from critics and the Brazilian film industry, which included a four-minute long video by Fernanda Torres supporting selection of the The Secret Agent, the latter was ultimately chosen as the country's official submission on 15 September.
Accolades
At the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, The Secret Agent was the festival's most awarded film, winning the Best Actor award for Moura, the Best Director award for Mendonça Filho, the Art House Cinema Award and the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film.At the 2025 New York Film Critics Circle Awards, it was also the most awarded film, winning Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor. At the 2025 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, it won Best Foreign Language Film and was the runner-up for Best Picture and Best Lead Performance. At the 31st Critics' Choice Awards, it won Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for Best Actor. At the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, it became the first Brazilian production nominated for Best Motion Picture – Drama, and Moura the first Brazilian to win for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, while the film also won for Best Foreign Language Film.
At the 98th Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor for Moura, Best Casting and Best International Feature Film. This marks the second year in a row that a Brazilian film was nominated for Best Picture.
Furthermore, The Secret Agent was named the best film of the year on The Hollywood Reporter’s top 10 Best Films of 2025, placed fourth on Cahiers du Cinéma top 10 films of 2025, sixth on BBC’s 25 Best Films of 2025, eighth on The New York Times’ Best Movies of 2025, one of the Top 5 International Films of the year by the National Board of Review, and also appeared on former President of the United States Barack Obama's annual list of his favorite films of the year.