Leonardo Martinelli
Leonardo MARTINELLI (1998, Brazil) is a director and a screenwriter, often blends genres while exploring iconography and postcolonial structures, examining how these elements manifest in daily life, labor, and the relationship between the individual and the city. His work has been screened internationally including Cannes, Locarno, Toronto, San Sebastián, BFI London. With the short Fantasma Neon he won the Golden Leopard for Best International Short Film at the Locarno Film Festival. Pássaro Memória (2023) premiered at the Locarno and TIFF competition. His latest film, Samba Infinito (2025) was selected for the Festival de Cannes, competing at the Semaine de la Critique. A focus session featuring his complete filmography was a highlight at the 63rd Cartagena Film Festival, making him the youngest filmmaker in the festival’s history to receive this recognition. Currently he is developing his first feature, which has been selected for the Locarno Residency and Hubert Bals Fund and CineMart 2026.
Filmography
Fantasma Neon (2021, short), Pássaro Memória (2023), Samba Infinito (2025)
Leonardo Martinelli at IFFR
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Neon Phantom
Leonardo Martinelli | 90' | Brazil |
A musical about a young delivery worker in Rio de Janeiro who finds his worldview and family ties tested as he’s swept into the rising… -
La Sudestada
Daniel Casabé, Edgardo Dieleke | 86' | Argentina | World premiere
An endearing reflection on urban loneliness disguised as a shape-shifting, genre-bending detective story. -
Los que vuelven
Laura Casabé | 93' | Argentina | International premiere
The indigenous people of South America are dead or oppressed. Until the breaching of a supernatural taboo unleashes a mysterious uprising.