Fernando Meirelles

Biography

Fernando Ferreira Meirelles is an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-nominated, and BAFTA Award-winning Brazilian film director, producer, and screenwriter celebrated for his kinetic visual grammar, social realism, and passionate political storytelling. Trained in architecture at the University of São Paulo, Meirelles co-founded the influential independent production company O2 Filmes in 1991, directing thousands of groundbreaking commercials and television programs that revolutionized Brazilian media. In 2002, Meirelles shocked the international film community with the breathtaking crime epic City of God (Cidade de Deus), an uncompromising look at Rio de Janeiro's favela drug wars that screened to universal adulation at Cannes, earned four Academy Award nominations—including Best Director for Meirelles—and is widely ranked among the greatest motion pictures of all time. Making his English-language directorial debut, Meirelles directed the acclaimed political thriller The Constant Gardener (2005 based on John le Carré's novel, starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz in her Oscar-winning performance), earning BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for Best Director. He directed the dystopian adaptation Blindness (2008 starring Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo), the multi-narrative drama 360 (2011 starring Anthony Hopkins), and earned immense critical acclaim directing Netflix's biographical drama The Two Popes (2019 starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce). He also served as creative director for the spectacular Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Meirelles is a towering figure of Latin American and global cinema.