Ana Vaz
Ana Vaz is an artist and filmmaker whose film-poems are marked by a constant experimental defiance to the poetic forms of contemporary cinema, highlighting the destructive practices of colonial modernity. She is the author of films and installations such as It is Night in America (2022), The Voyage Out: Embrace Tiger Return to Mountain (2022), Apiyemiyekî? (2019) and Occidente (2015) extensively presented in film festivals and cultural institutions.
Her films have been screened at festivals such as Locarno Film Festival; Berlinale Forum Expanded; New York Film Festival; Courtisane; MoMA Doc Fortnight; CPH:DOX; IFF Rotterdam; Viennale; Mostra Internacional de Cinema em São Paulo; Jeonju International Film Festival; IndieLisboa; and FIC Valdivia. Among the individual screenings and retrospectives dedicated to her work are the TIFF Cinematheque (Canada), the Flaherty Film Seminar (USA), the Cineteca Matadero (Spain), MK2 Beaubourg (France), the 5th Latin American Film Weekend at the Reflet Médicis (France), the Yebisu International Festival of Art and Alternative Visions (apan), the BOZAR Cinémathèque (Belgium), Doc’s Kingdom (Portugal), the ICA (LUK), the MMCA-Exis Film Festival (South Korea), and the Harvard Film Archives (USA), amongst others.
Her first feature film, É Noite na América (2022), won awards at Locarno, the Festival dei Popoli, Entrevues Belfort and FIDOCS, and was named film of the year by publications such as Cahiers du Cinéma and Le Monde. She has also received awards such as the Film Society of Lincoln Centre Kazuko Trust Award (2015), the Robert E. Fulton Fellowship at Harvard University, the ‘Grand Prix’ at Punto de Vista (2020), 25FPS (2020), Cinéma du Réel (2016), Media City Film Festival (2015), Fronteira Experimental and Documentary Film Festival (2015), Black Canvas Film Festival (2020), European Media Art Festival (2021) and Media City Film Festival (2017). In 2024–25, she was a fellow at the French Academy in Rome -Villa Medici. In 2025–26, she is a guest artist at Le Fresnoy – National Studio for Contemporary Arts.
Filmography
• HANABI (2026)
• A ÁRVORE (2022)
• É NOITE NA AMÉRICA (2022)
• PSEUDOSPHYNX (2020)
• 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A BLACKBIRD (2020)
• APIYEMIYEKÎ? (2019)
• ATOMIC GARDEN (2018)
• AMAZING FANTASY (2018)
• OLHE BEM AS MONTANHAS (2018)
• AMÉRIKA: BAHÍA DE LAS FLECHAS (2016)
• HÁ TERRA! (2016)
• A FILM, RECLAIMED, co-directed w/ Tristan Bera, (2015)
• OCCIDENTE (2014)
• A IDADE DA PEDRA (2013)
• LES MAINS, NÉGATIVES, co-directed w/ Julien Creuzet (2012)
• ENTRE TEMPS (2012)
• SACRIS PULSO (2007)