Brazil's entry for Best International Feature Film Oscar is no longer a secret. The Brazilian Cinema Academy has chosen filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho's thriller The Secret Agent as the country's official submission for the best international film Oscar award. Wagner Moura, best known for playing Pablo Escobar in Netflix's Narcos, leads the film's cast, starring alongside Maria Fernanda Cândido, Carlos Francisco, Gabriel Leon, Hermila Guedes, and Alice Carvalho.
The film, hailing from producer Emilie Lesclaux, is set in Brazil of 1977, and it follows a middle-aged technology expert (Moura) who comes to Recife, only to realise that it is not the peaceful place for him to seek refuge.
The Secret Agent had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, and the film won its Best Director and Best Actor awards for Filho and Moura, respectively. Mubi holds the rights to release the film digitally in India, Ireland, Latin America, and the UK.
Brazil won Best International Feature Film Oscar in 2025 for Walter Salles’s drama I’m Still Here. Films such as The Blue Trail and Manas were also in discourse for the best international film Oscar submission. Fernanda Torres, the star of I’m Still Here, commended the solid candidates for Brazil's official entry for the Oscars this year through an Instagram post, saying, “Brazilian cinema is reborn like a phoenix" and naming The Secret Agent as her preferred option.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is set to announce the final list of nominees for the award on January 22, 2026. The Dolby Theatre will host the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday, March 15, next year.