Variety Talent to Track Rafaela Camelo’s ‘The Nature of Invisible Things’ Sells to Sundance TV Spain, RTP Portugal (EXCLUSIVE)
by Anna Marie de la Fuente · Variety“The Nature of Invisible Things,” the debut feature of Variety Next Gen Brazilian Talent to Track Rafaela Camayo, has been sold to Sundance TV (Spain) and RTP (Portugal) by The Open Reel.
“After the massive turnout and numerous awards at international festivals since its debut at the Berlinale, I’m delighted to see how these festivals have appreciated and promoted the film’s narrative and themes, to the point of making it available on a high-quality platform like Sundance TV or a national broadcaster like RTP in Portugal. Further sales negotiations are underway and we hope to announce them soon,” said The Open Reel’s Cosimo Santoro.
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“The Nature of Invisible Things” recently competed at the Alternativa, an itinerant film festival that ran its third edition in Medellín, Colombia.
It has won a string of festival prizes since its world premiere at the 75th Berlinale where it opened the Generation Kplus strand.
The coming-of-age drama follows two young girls who meet at a hospital, where one, Gloria, accompanies her nurse mother while the other, Sofia, is visiting her ailing grandmother. The bond they share helps them navigate the challenges in their lives.
Speaking to Variety at Alternativa, Camelo said: “If there is a thru-line in my work, I would say they are usually inspired by my fascination with females who support each other, whether they are young or older.”
“’The Nature of Invisible Things’ explores death and grief from the perspective of two 10-year-old girls. It examines how children make sense of complex truths that adults try to hide or soften and how they find their own path toward these discoveries,” she said.
Her next feature, “The Favorite Daughter” (“A filha favorita”) deals with a couple of siblings in their forties. The bittersweet family drama revolves around a conflict between the sisters over the father’s eventual demise and the inheritance that is likely to spark a bitter dispute.
Shooting begins in October from a screenplay co-written by Camelo and André Araújo. Allan Deberton and Marcelo Pinheiro of Deberton Filmes produce.
With her third feature, “The Older Sister” (“Irmã mais velha”), she plans to delve into genre territory, about a mother, who’s a medium, and her daughters, with the older one dying at the beginning of the film. Co-written by Camelo and André Pereira, it has been selected by the Hubert Bals Fund and by the Torino Script Lab 2026, BRLAB, which won her a distribution deal with Vitrine Filmes, and Cinequanon Lab. André Pereira and Mariana Muniz of Lupa Filmes produce.
A leading Italian sales agent and production company, The Open Reel has a number of Brazilian pics in its slate, among them drama “Our Secret” by Grace Passó, “Dolores” by Marcelo Gomes (“Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures”) and Maria Clara Escobar (“Desterro”) as well as Juliana Rojas’ “Cidade; Campo.”