Gabriel Mascaro

Gabriel Mascaro (born 24 September 1983 in Recife, Brazil) is a Brazilian visual artist and film director whose work bridges documentary realism and poetic fiction. Emerging from the vibrant cinematic scene of Pernambuco, Mascaro quickly gained international attention after his debut documentary KFZ‑1348 (2008), which used a vintage Volkswagen as a narrative lens to explore class and identity in contemporary Brazil, earning the Special Jury Prize at São Paulo International Film Festival. His follow‑up, High‑rise (Um Lugar ao Sol) (2009), surveyed the lives of luxury penthouse residents across major Brazilian cities, provoking critical discussion about wealth disparity and urban aspiration. In 2010 he released Avenida Brasília Formosa, a study of the tension between urban planning and personal dreams, which premiered in Rotterdam’s Bright Future program and secured a Hubert Bals Fund script development grant for his later feature Neon Bull. The 2012 documentary Housemaids (Doméstica), constructed from footage shot by teenage filmmakers, sparked nationwide debate and was hailed as a historic document of Brazil’s social fabric. Mascaro’s first narrative feature, August Winds (2014), presented a lyrical portrait of a rural tractor driver turned punk‑rock enthusiast, winning multiple awards at Locarno and Brasília festivals. His breakthrough fiction, Neon Bull (2015), received the Orizzonti Special Jury Prize at Venice and earned acclaim from critics such as Francis Ford Coppola and Caetano Veloso, who praised its sensual blend of human and animal worlds. Subsequent works like Divine Love (2019) and The Blue Trail (2025) continued his exploration of marginal voices, with the latter capturing the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at Berlin. Beyond filmmaking, Mascaro has held residencies at Videoformes, the Wexner Center, and exhibited at institutions including the Guggenheim, MoMA, and the Venice Biennale, cementing his reputation as a multidisciplinary artist whose practice interrogates social structures through inventive visual language.