<\/p>\n
Sean Penn, Julia Roberts, and John and Nancy Ross hosted a screening of Marianna Brennand\u2019s debut film \u201cManas\u201d on Saturday in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
The film, one of those vying to be the Oscar contender for Brazil, was introduced by Roberts and Penn, who serves as an executive producer. The screening was followed by a Q&A with Brennand, the film\u2019s director, writer and producer, and its star, Dira Paes.<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Roberts told the audience: \u201cI am so excited for what\u2019s about to happen to everyone in this room because it happened to me and it will change you. This movie is life-affirming in such a sad and beautiful and magical way.\u201d<\/p>\n Building on that sentiment, Penn reflected on the first time he encountered Brennand, recalling: \u201cAt the Cannes Film Festival this year, there was a Kering Foundation dinner, and a woman came up to the stage to accept the Emerging Talent Award. She gave a speech, and the authenticity of this person was the kind of power that could only make a great film.\u201d<\/p>\n Brennand expressed her gratitude to her hosts: \u201cThank you, Sean, for seeing us, for recognizing the power of this story, and for speaking out\u2026 And Julia, thank you for empowering us with your presence here today. You both are immensely amplifying our voices.\u201d<\/p>\n The film was born out of 10 years of research in the Amazon by Brennand, who began her career as a documentarian. It tells the story of Marcielle (Jamilli Correa), a 13-year-old from Maraj\u00f3 Island. Silenced in a society that ignores violence against women and children, she \u201cconfronts generational wounds and takes control of her destiny, forever altering her family\u2019s fate,\u201d according to a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cManas\u201d won Brennand the best director award at Venice Days, the independent parallel section of the Venice Film Festival, and has collected a total 27 awards to date. The Brazilian film is one of six titles shortlisted to represent the country at the 2026 Academy Awards, with Penn, Academy Award winner Walter Salles, two-time Palme d\u2019Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and \u201cI\u2019m Still Here\u201d producer Maria Carlota Bruno serving as executive producers.<\/p>\n On his decision to join as executive producer, Penn previously stated: \u201cIn the tradition last fulfilled by Walter Salles\u2019s \u2018I\u2019m Still Here,\u2019 Marianna Brennand\u2019s film \u2018Manas\u2019 continues Brazil\u2019s most enduring cinematic legacy. Films of striking social relevance that never fall to polemic or sensationalism, but instead so trustingly fulfill their characters\u2019 plight and courage. \u2018Manas\u2019 is deeply emotional, stirring, and God forbid\u2026 important. I felt as if I had to put my skin back on after watching it.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sean Penn, Julia Roberts, and John and Nancy Ross hosted a screening of Marianna Brennand\u2019s debut film \u201cManas\u201d on Saturday in Los Angeles. The film, one of those vying to be the Oscar contender for Brazil, was introduced by Roberts and Penn, who serves as an executive producer. The screening was followed by a Q&A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2021838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[326557,310350,345279,22693,371735,371733,371734,48398],"class_list":["post-2021837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-executive-producer","tag-julia-roberts","tag-los-angeles","tag-manas","tag-marianna-brennand","tag-phil-faraone","tag-sean-penn"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Julia-Roberts-Sean-Penn-Host-Screening-for-Brazilian-Oscar-Contender.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2021837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2021838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2021837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2021837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2021837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}