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Maria Vitória

Mário Patrocínio
Portugal, 2025, 113 min.

In Portuguese with English subtitles.
This film is family friendly.

AIFF Award Winner:
Best Foreign Feature

Maria Vitória lives in a remote village in the Portuguese mountains and plays football in the local boys' youth team. Determined to go pro, she spends all her free time training with her father, Nacho. Their routine is shaken by the sudden return of Bruno, her older brother, who left many years ago after a tragic fire took their mother’s life. As she prepares for the most important match of her life, Maria begins to question her father’s authority and the weight that governs her existence. Little by little, she seeks a way to break free.

Director's Statement

Mário Patrocínio (1979) is a Portuguese director and producer known for award-winning documentaries and now making his fiction feature debut. Born in Lisbon, his artistic vision began to take shape in Japan, where he lived for two years as a child and attended a Japanese school. This early experience abroad shaped his outlook as a filmmaker. A citizen of the world, he has lived and filmed across continents, from Rio de Janeiro to Angola, from Paris to Los Angeles and back to Lisbon. His work reflects curiosity about people and cultures, seeking stories that reveal humanity beyond borders and time.

Category: Drama, Feature, Award Winner.
Themes: Family, Sports, World Cinema.

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