Karim Aïnouz

Karim Aïnouz (born 17 January 1966) is a Brazilian film director and visual artist. He is best known for his film The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão.

Career
Karim Aïnouz was born to a Brazilian mother and an Algerian father, in Fortaleza, Ceará, in the Brazilian Northeast. He is a film director, screenwriter and visual artist.

Aïnouz's feature debut, Madame Satã, premiered at the Un Certain Regard section of the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.

His following films, Suely in the Sky, and I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You, co-directed with Marcelo Gomes, premiered at the Orizzonti of the in 2006 and 2009 Venice Film Festival.

In 2011, The Silver Cliff was presented in the Directors' Fortnight and won Best Director at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival. In television, Aïnouz created and directed Alice, a 13 episode fiction series for HBO Brasil. His short films and installations have been shown at numerous venues including The Whitney Museum of American Art, the São Paulo Biennial, the Sharjah Biennial and Videobrasil.

As creative advisor and lecturer, Aïnouz has been invited to numerous Screenwriters Labs and institutions such as Princeton University, Wexner Center for the Arts, MIT, EICTV among others. Karim Aïnouz has been developing, alongside fellow filmmakers Marcelo Gomes and Sérgio Machado, The Center for Audiovisual Narratives in partnership with State authorities of Ceará, Brazil. Among other activities, they coordinate and work as creative advisors to the Screenwriters Lab, a one-year program committed to the development of a new generation of filmmakers, providing support throughout their projects. Since 2017, Aïnouz is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Karim Aïnouz documentary Zentralflughafen THF, premiered at the 68th Berlinale – Panorama, won the Amnesty International Film Award, and has been screened in over 10 festivals. His previous feature Futuro Beach, had its world premiere at the 64th Berlinale Competition.

In 2019 he released The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão, an adaptation of the Brazilian novel A Vida Invisivel de Eurídice Gusmão, written by Martha Batalha, depicting the struggle of two sisters against repression and bigotry in the 1950s Rio de Janeiro. The film was screened at the Un Certain Regard section of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the section top prize.

In 2021, Aïnouz third documentary, Mariner of the Mountains, followed his search for his own Algerian roots in Algiers, his father’s homeland.

In 2023, Aïnouz released his English language debut film, Firebrand, at the main competition of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. The film follows the final years of Henry VIII's reign and his wife Catherine Parr.

In 2024, Aïnouz went back to the Brazilian Northeast with the erotic thriller Motel Destino. The film had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival main competition.

Favourite films
In 2022, Aïnouz participated in the Sight & Sound film polls of that year. It is held every ten years to select the greatest films of all time, by asking contemporary directors to select ten films of their choice. Aïnouz selections were:


 * Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
 * Imitation of Life (1959)
 * Hour of the Star (1985)
 * Un Chant d'Amour (1950)
 * Red Desert (1964)
 * News from Home (1977)
 * Happy Together (1997)
 * A Woman under the Influence (1974)

Documentary film

 * Velázquez (2015)
 * Zentralflughafen THF (2018)
 * Mariner of the Mountains (2021)

Awards

 * 2019: Prix Un Certain Regard for The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão
 * 2018: Amnesty International Film Prize, Berlinale, for Zentralflughafen THF
 * 2011: Second Grand Coral Award, Havana Film Festival, for The Silver Cliff
 * 2011: Award for Best Director, Rio International Film Festival, for The Silver Cliff
 * 2010: Grand Prix Coup de Coeur, 22º Rencontres Cinémas d'Amérique Latin (Toulouse/France), for I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You co-directed with Marcelo Gomes.
 * 2009: Award for Best Director, Rio International Film Festival, for I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You
 * 2009: FIPRESCI Award, Havana Film Festival, for I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You
 * 2009: Third Grand Coral Award, Havana Film Festival, for I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You
 * 2006: FIPRESCI Award, 47th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, for Love for Sale
 * 2006: Grand Coral Award, Havana Film Festival, for Love for Sale
 * 2006: Award for Best Film, Rio International Film Festival, for Love for Sale
 * 2006: Award for Best Director, Rio International Film Festival, for Love for Sale
 * 2002: Gold Hugo, Chicago International Film Festival, for Madame Satã
 * 2002: Award for Best Director, Biarritz Film Festival, for Madame Satã
 * 2002: Award for Best Director, São Paulo Association of Art Critics Awards, for Madame Satã
 * 1997: Award for Best Short, Ann Arbor Film Festival, for Seams
 * 1994: Award for Best Short, Atlanta Film Festival, for Seams