Director

Petra Costa

Directing

Career Snapshot

Explained

These indicators come from TMDB. They are relative signals, not review ratings.

Directed credits

Emerging

Beginning to build directing work.

TMDB popularity

0.9

Low visibility

TMDB internal trend index. Higher usually means more searches and page activity now.

Directed movies: 5Directed series: 0All crew credits: 9

TMDB ID: 1142917

IMDb ID: nm3525467

Known for: Directing

Born: July 8, 1983

Age: 42

Place of birth: Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Gender: Female

Adult content flag: No

Career span: 2010 - 2025

Years active: 16

Average TMDB rating: 7.17

Wikidata: Q7178628

Frequent jobs

Director (5)Assistant Editor (1)Associate Producer (1)Executive Producer (1)Producer (1)

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Biography

Petra Costa is a Brazilian filmmaker and actress. She first directed the short film Undertow Eyes (2009) which screened at the MoMA and was winner of best short film at Rio Film Festival, Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, London International Documentary Festival among others. She then directed the feature Elena (2012) which premiered at IDFA, followed by SXSW and HotDocs. Elena won many prizes such as best film at Havana Film Festival (2013), was nominated for Best Cinematography at the 2014 Cinema Eye Honors and was the most watched documentary in Brazil in 2013. In 2013 Petra was one of the 20 recipients of a grant given by CPH:DOX in Denmark. From this grant Petra and her Danish co-director Lea Glob developed a feature film, currently in postproduction, with the working title Olmo and the Seagull. The film is being produced by Zentropa, Som & Furia and Busca Vida Filmes. Petra completed her undergraduate studies Summa Cum Laude in Anthropology at Barnard College, Columbia University, New York. She did her Masters in Health, Community and Development at the London School of Economics, London. She has lived in Brazil for most of her life.