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HECTOR BABENCO Filmography and Awards Born in Argentina in 1948, Hector Babenco lived in Europe from 1964 to 1968. He has travelled extensivly and held a variety of jobs (house painter, washer-up, extra... ). He arrived Brazil in 1969 and has since resided permanently in São Paulo. In 1975, he directs his first feature film, KING OF THE NIGHT casting Paulo José and Marilia Pêra. With his second feature, LUCIO FLAVIO, PASSENGER OF AGONY, based on real facts, Babenco scores one of Brazil's all-time box-office successes (a total audience of 5,4 million). In 1981, he makes PIXOTE, THE LAW OF THE WEAKEST, about Brazil's abandoned children. Due to the impressive interpretation by Fernando Ramos da Silva (10 years old at the time of filming; assassinated by the police in 1987), discovered in the suburbs of São Paulo, the film was a worldwide success receiving various international prizes. It was considered best foreign film by the Los Angeles and New York Art Critics Associations (1981) and Marília Pêra was considered Actress of the Year by the U.S. National Society of Cinema Critics. At the end of the eighties, PIXOTE was chosen one of the decades most remarkable films by the "American Film" magazine together with Akiro Kurosawa's RAN and Ingmar Bergman's FANNY & ALEXANDRE. With the film, THE KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (1984), an adaption of the novel by the Argentinean writer, Manuel Puig, Babenco worked with internationally renowned partners - later, this served as a model for other Brazilian productions. Interpreted by William Hurt and Raul Julia, the film was presente at the Cannes Festival where Hurt received the Best Masculine Interpretation Prize. THE KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN also received four Oscar nominations (best film, best producer, best adaption and best actor), Hurt pocketing Best Actor. In 1987, Babenco made IRONWEED, based on a novel byWilliam Kennedy (Pulitzer Prize), with Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, Oscar nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress respectively. Babenco directed AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD in 1991, this time an adaption of a novel by Peter Mathiessen. The fillm is produced by Saul Zaents (ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, AMADEUS, THE ENGLISH PATIENT). Filmed entirely in the Amazon, AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD, features Tom Berenger, Daryl Hannah, Aidan Quinn and Kathy Bates. Finally, two years after having undergone a bone marrow transplant to cure a lympyhatic cancer circuit, he makes FOOLISH HEART, his seventh film. To date, his most personal project, inspired by his adolescent memories.

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