Filipe Rafaeli is a 47-year-old filmmaker from Atibaia, a countryside town in São Paulo, with a passion for telling stories that celebrate Brazilian culture and history. His debut short, "O Looping" (2013), delves into his love for aviation by narrating the encounter between a boy and a Brazilian pilot preparing to fight against Nazifascism in Italy during World War II. The film won the Apollo Trophy for Best Fiction at the Militum Festival in Rio de Janeiro. His second work, "A Bola" (The Ball, 2025), which brings together samba, football, and inclusion, continues its festival circuit run and has already established an international profile, having been selected and screened in Brazil, France, Portugal, Austria, Colombia, Africa, and Eastern Europe, where it has received two honorable mentions.
His newest project, "Céu Estrelado" (Starry Sky), deepens this quest for narratives that blend the universal with the poetic. The film explores, with subtle humor, how a society has forgotten life's simple pleasures, like looking up at the sky.
Interestingly, the precision and poetry of his cinematic gaze find a parallel in another of his passions: Filipe is an aerobatics pilot and a four-time Brazilian champion in the discipline. In his flights, he learned that each maneuver is a visual narrative whose ultimate goal is not just technique, but to captivate the audience's gaze. It is this same intention that he now brings to the screen, guiding the viewer with smoothness toward the details that truly matter.
