White Masks

[BluBonnet]

‘Rule 34’ Director Julia Murat Developing Musical ‘White Masks’ at the 2025 Pop Up Film Residency Projeto Paradiso

Brazilian director and screenwriter Julia Murat will develop her fourth fiction feature film, “White Masks,” in Projeto Paradiso’s Pop Up Film Residency in Revine Lago, Italy. Focusing on the development of a fiction feature film, the program is carried out in more than 10 countries and offered to a Brazilian filmmaker by Projeto Paradiso, Brazil’s only philanthropic organization supporting the audiovisual industry.

Murat made her feature debut with the 2008 doc “Father’s Day” and then moved on to work largely on fiction feature films. She has previously directed “Rule 34,” which won Locarno’s Best Film Prize as well as earning Murat the Best Directing award at the Rio Film Festival; “Pendular,” winner of Berlin’s Fipresci Prize; and “Found Memories,” a film that amassed 39 international awards and was selected for more than 80 festivals including Venice, Toronto and Rotterdam. The director also produced Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses,” winner of the Fipresci Award in Berlin. Projeto Paradiso’s Pop Up Film Residency will see the director travel to Revine, Lago in Italy, in the summer of 2025.

Not much has been announced about “White Masks” but its logline reveals the director’s next project will be a personal musical examining her country’s sociopolitical fabric: “A diverse group of artists navigate the labyrinth of identity, desire and privilege in contemporary Brazil through a daring autofictional musical that blends biting satire and personal reckoning.”

Speaking about the project, Murat says what drew her to it was “a desire to take risks.” “’White Masks’ is a very challenging film, both in a language and production sense. The film talks about a very sensitive subject, which is identity. It is a film about the people I love most, people I care deeply about, about close friends, and myself. What I am trying to do is show our vulnerabilities and how we are part of this system of oppression.”

“It is a very challenging film,” she continues. “I am hoping that the residence will help me tackle the structure and make me understand how to make this film. I want to thank [the team] for this selection because it will be very helpful for the film.”

Lago Film Festival founder and art director Viviana Carlet, who will be hosting Murat in Italy, says that the filmmaker “brings to the residency not only a powerful artistic vision, but also the courage to explore deeply layered and politically sensitive issues with radical honesty. Her project is bold, poetic, and necessary – a work that challenges perspectives and demands reflection. Hosting them at Lago is a privilege: it’s a place where the silence of the landscape and the strength of the community provide the right space to take risks, rethink, and refine.”

Murat is the sixth filmmaker to participate in the Pop Up Paradiso residence, a programme created by Projecto Paradiso alongside TATINO. Executive director of Projeto Paradiso Josephine Bourgois says the programme was envisioned “to guarantee that Brazilian filmmakers who have had their international debut get a chance to develop their third film (and above) in the best conditions, based on the fact that there are actually limited offers for this category of accomplished however still emerging talent.”

The Pop Up Film Residency is an international network of film residencies carried out in partnership with international entities, labs, festivals, and markets, such as the Cannes’ Short Film Corner, Jihlava’s Emerging Producers, and When East Meets West. The residency is designed for directors and screenwriters working on at least their third feature film. Previous editions include Beatriz Seigner in Slovakia with “While They Sleep,” Esmir Filho in Athens with “Undetectable,” Caru Alves de Souza in Vilnius with “Lonely Hearts,” Daniel Bandeira in the Faroe Islands with “Red Express” and, most recently, Carolina Markowicz in Bucharest with “The Funeral.”