Wonder Maria Films is a new production company based where the sky is always bluer: Lisbon. However, our partners are scattered around the world.
We are a boutique production company, a place of nurturing and producing creativity in the form of films. Founded by four longtime friends, we create our synergy through the diversity of our experiences. We believe in closely accompanying each of our projects, listening to those involved, and valuing authorship and individual objectives. Our focus is on the people behind the ideas and also those who work to bring them to life. We enjoy bold, visually impactful projects that embody a unique and powerful vision, contributing to a world we believe in.
ANDREIA NUNES
Andreia Nunes has 3 kids and still looking for an hobby! Meanwhile she is a film producer and professor. Holding a degree in Cinema and Media Art from Universidade Lusófona, she honed her expertise through courses like Film Financing in an Entrepreneurial Age with Paul Miller, Film Producing and Financing with Gareth Wiley, and Sustainable Management of Audiovisual Production with Dörte Schneider.
She is one of the selected for the EAVE Producers Workshop 2024.As the head of the fiction department at Take it Easy Filmes for over a decade, Andreia produced projects like “Odisseia” (2013) by Tiago Guedes and the internationally acclaimed short film “An Avocado Pit” (2022), directed by Ary Zara, which is shortlisted for the 96th Oscars.
In Wonder Maria Filmes she produces mostly fiction projects looking for talents with truth and inspirational stories.
Andreia is a production professor at Universidade Lusófona and a member of FilmEU - European Alliance of Universities.
BRUNO MORAES CABRAL
Bruno Moraes Cabral, born in 1980, is a film producer and director. He dedicated the early years of his career to documentary filmmaking, aiming to address significant questions about history, contemporary society, and its transformations. In 2011, he founded Garden Films, where he produced and directed his award-winning documentary "Praxis," widely showcased in dozens of festivals, RTP1, and Canal+. Additionally, he worked on series for RTP História titled "História a História" and "História a História - África," as well as the documentary "Hasta que Muera el Sol" by Claudio Carbone, which traveled to over 40 international festivals.
Bruno also regularly collaborates in the conceptualization of documentaries and audiovisual installations for museums and exhibitions. At Wonder Maria, he now focuses on developing fiction and documentary projects with an international scope, particularly emphasizing Brazil and Africa. His productions include the short film "Big Bang Henda" by Fernanda Polacow, the feature film "As Fado Bicha" by Justine Lemahieu, and various documentaries for RTP.
FERNANDA POLACOW
Fernanda is a Brazilian screenwriter, director and script consultant. Her latest film, Big Bang Henda, a hybrid short, premiered at Doc Lisboa 2023. Her first feature film as a screenwriter, Mosquito, was the opening film at the Rotterdam International Film Festival (2020) and won the Prize of Critics at the São Paulo International FF (2020), in addition to visiting dozens of festivals. Her second feature, The Last Summer, is being finalized after being selected for the Script Station at Berlinale 2023.
She develops, writes and directs for TV, streaming and cinema, and some of her works have received awards and nominations at the Brazilian Cinema Academy, New York TV&Film Festival, Hollywood Woman's FF, among others. She was head of the script room for the podcast Nenê da Brasilândia, an original Amazon Music, and also of the script room for The 23 project for the Kwai platform, which reached more than 100M views. She wrote the documentary feature film Ziraldo, once upon a time a boy, which premiered at São Paulo International FF and Rio International FF.
She has written projects for HBO, GNT, TV Cultura, Globoplay, NatGeo, Discovery Channel, Al Jazeera , NHK, etc. She wrote and was assistant director of the short Birds in the Mouth (2015), which won the São Paulo City Council's Estímulo Award for best script, and toured festivals such as the São Paulo International Short Film Festival, Guarnicê Film Festival in São Luís, Huesca International Film Festival, Guadalajara International Film Festival, Boston Short Film Festival, Curta Brasília, among others. As a script consultant, she has worked for Cabíria Festival, Projeto Paradiso, PLOT, Pitch Me! (Netflix and Portuguese Film Academy) and as a mentor at IndieLab, the project development workshop at the IndieLisboa Festival. She was part of the Torino Scrip Lab 2023 as Story Editor and is part of the Paradiso Project talent network. She is a co-founder of MUTIM (Women in Film Association in Portugal), a mother and an amateur percussionist.
JOÃO NUNO PINTO
João Nuno Pinto is a Portuguese film director born in Mozambique, that lived in Portugal and Brazil, before establishing himself in Lisbon. Graduated in Graphic Arts, he started his career in design and art direction before crossing the Atlantic to study Cinema at the New York Film Academy and Directing Actors at the Judith Weston’s Studio in Los Angeles.
Pinto’s filmmaking prowess has been recognized by his character-driven narratives, crafted with a keen cinematic sensibility. His latest feature film MOSQUITO, a First World War drama based in his grand-father story, set in Mozambique and produced by Paulo Branco, was the opening film of the International Film festival Rotterdam 2020 and won the Critics Award for Best International Film at the Mostra de São Paulo, in the same year.
AMÉRICA, his first feature film, was premiered in 2010 at the Rio Festival, Brazil, and won Best Director at the Sofia Film Festival, among other awards. He made recently his television debut with the crime series NATURAL LAW for the Portuguese national television, RTP1, where he led the audience ratings for fiction programs on the channel and won the Sophia Award for Best National Series.
THE LAST SUMMER is his third feature film. It is produced by Wonder Maria Filmes, a production company of which he is a founding partner.