Under the Same Sun (Bajo el mismo sol), Ulises Porra’s Dominican Republic–Spain co-production, has won best film at the 36th Cine Ceará, the Ibero-American film festival in Fortaleza, in north-east Brazil. The prize, a Mucuripe trophy and a cheque for R$40,000 ($7,100), was presented on the night of Friday 13 November at the closing ceremony in the city’s Cineteatro São Luiz. With four awards in all, the film was the most decorated feature of the edition.
Fortaleza extends a festival run that began with a world premiere at Toronto in 2025 and has already brought the jury award at Biarritz. The film opened in Dominican cinemas in August, and it is the Dominican Republic’s entry for best Ibero-American film at the 2027 Goyas.
Key facts
- Event: 36th Cine Ceará – Festival Ibero-americano de Cinema, Fortaleza, 7–13 November 2026; 45 features and shorts in the programme
- Best film: Under the Same Sun (Bajo el mismo sol), Ulises Porra (Dominican Republic, Spain), which also won screenplay, supporting performance and the critics’ prize
- FilmBunch count of the published lists: 21 awards and one honourable mention across three competitions; all six features in the Ibero-American competition were recognised
- FilmBunch tally of announced cash: R$70,000 ($12,400) across three prizes; the published lists show trophies only for the rest
The feature competition
Under the Same Sun is set on Hispaniola in 1819, where a young Spanish heir, a Chinese weaver and a Haitian deserter try to build a silk factory in the colonial Caribbean. David Castillo, Valentina Shen Wu and Jean Jean lead the cast. Porra, who was born in Barcelona and has made most of his career in Latin America, wrote the screenplay with the producer Ulla Prida, and the two shared Cine Ceará’s screenplay award. Shen Wu and Jean Jean shared the award for supporting performance, and the critics’ jury of Aceccine, the Ceará film critics’ association, chose the film too. It is Porra’s third feature, after Tigre (2017) and Carajita (2021), which he co-directed with Silvina Schnicer.
The film is produced by Wooden Boat Productions and Alta Isla Films in the Dominican Republic with Spain’s Fasten Films and Cobalt Films, with support from the Dominican film agency DGCINE, Spain’s ICAA and Programa Ibermedia. Habanero Film Sales handles world sales.
The official jury, the Brazilian director Susanna Lira, the filmmaker Théo Court and the Cuban screenwriter Xenia Rivery, spread the remaining prizes across the six-film field. Bertrand Lira’s Trapiá, um outro sertão, a documentary from the Brazilian state of Paraíba, won best director and best original score. Ecuador’s Nunkui, Verenice Benítez’s co-production with Chile and Germany, which won the top prize in its section at Chile’s Valdivia festival this month, took best lead performance for Sana Maiche and best sound. Cine Ceará does not split its acting prizes by gender.
Marta Matute’s Yo no moriré de amor, which won the Biznaga de Oro for best Spanish film at Málaga in March, won the awards for editing and art direction. Its editor, Carlos Cañas Carreira, also shares the editing credit on Under the Same Sun. Carlos Sánchez Giraldo’s No hay ida sin retorno, from Peru, won best cinematography, and Terra firme, the first feature of the Ceará director Alexandre Vale, which opened the festival, received an honourable mention for its child actors.
Shorts and the Ceará competition
In the Brazilian short film competition, Luciana Vieira’s Joqueta, from Ceará, matched the feature winner with four awards: best short from the official jury, the critics’ prize, the Samburá trophy of the Fortaleza newspaper O Povo and the Canal Brasil prize, which carries R$15,000 ($2,600) and a place in the pay channel’s programming. In the Olhar do Ceará section for films from the state, Nirton Venâncio’s Pessoal do Ceará – Lado A Lado B, a documentary about the 1970s Ceará music movement of the same name, won best feature.
The festival’s honorary Eusélio Oliveira trophies went to the producer Emilie Lesclaux, the director Kleber Mendonça Filho, the critic Luiz Carlos Merten, the actress Isis Valverde, the municipal arts school Vila das Artes and the journalist Luizianne Lins. The edition was dedicated to Fortaleza’s 300th anniversary.
Full list of winners
From the lists published by Diário do Nordeste, Rolling Stone Brasil and O Povo on 14 and 15 November; the festival’s website carried no results list at the time of writing. Names are spelled as in the films’ credits where these differ from the lists. Spanish-language titles are given in the original.
Ibero-American feature competition – Best film (Mucuripe trophy and R$40,000): Bajo el mismo sol (Under the Same Sun), Ulises Porra (Dominican Republic, Spain) – Best director: Bertrand Lira, Trapiá, um outro sertão (Brazil) – Best lead performance: Sana Maiche, Nunkui, Verenice Benítez (Ecuador, Chile, Germany) – Best supporting performance: Valentina Shen Wu and Jean Jean, Bajo el mismo sol – Best screenplay: Ulises Porra and Ulla Prida, Bajo el mismo sol – Best cinematography: Alex Bendezú Alarcón and Carlos Sánchez Giraldo, No hay ida sin retorno (Peru) – Best editing: Carlos Cañas Carreira, Yo no moriré de amor, Marta Matute (Spain, Belgium) – Best original score: Luis Bourscheidt and Deborá Opolski, Trapiá, um outro sertão – Best sound: Arsenio Cadena and Juan José Luzuriaga, Nunkui – Best art direction: Rocío Peña, Yo no moriré de amor – Honourable mention: Benjamim Nunes and Pedro Lucas (child actors), Terra firme, Alexandre Vale (Brazil) – Critics’ prize (Aceccine): Bajo el mismo sol
Brazilian short film competition – Best short: Joqueta, Luciana Vieira (Ceará) – Best director: Rayane Teles, Cabeceira (Bahia) – Best screenplay: Jamila Facury, Caso isolado (Paraíba) – Critics’ prize (Aceccine): Joqueta – Canal Brasil short film prize (trophy and R$15,000): Joqueta – O Povo Samburá trophy, best film: Joqueta – O Povo Samburá trophy, best director: Giorgio Vinicius Casetta, Amargô (Goiás)
Olhar do Ceará competition – Best feature: Pessoal do Ceará – Lado A Lado B, Nirton Venâncio – Best short: Kaira e o temporal, Wagner Nogueira Mendes – Itaú Cultural Play prize (R$15,000): Janaína e a concha, Malu Meneses
Dollar figures use the European Central Bank reference rates for 13 November 2026 (R$5.66 per dollar).
Our reading
Cine Ceará’s money is modest: R$70,000 across three prizes, about $12,400. Its value to Under the Same Sun is one more jury and critics’ endorsement for a film already in the Goya race, and the next test is whether it is nominated for best Ibero-American film. For the Brazilian winners the prizes matter more at home: Joqueta’s Canal Brasil award puts it on a national pay channel, and Trapiá, um outro sertão leaves with two jury prizes. Results from the region’s other recent festivals, Mar del Plata and Sanfic, are on our Latin American cinema page.
Sources
- Diário do Nordeste, Confira os vencedores da 36ª edição do Cine Ceará, 14 November 2026 (full list of winners)
- Rolling Stone Brasil, Sob o Mesmo Sol é o grande vencedor do 36º Cine Ceará, 14 November 2026
- Revista de Cinema, Cine Ceará consagra o longa latino Sob o Mesmo Sol, 15 November 2026
- Habanero Film Sales, Bajo el mismo sol (Under the Same Sun) film page
- Fasten Films, Bajo el mismo sol
- Programa Ibermedia, Bajo el mismo sol se estrena en la República Dominicana
- ICAA, Catálogo de Películas, Yo no moriré de amor (credits)
- O Povo, Longa dominicano e filme sobre música cearense se destacam no Cine Ceará, 15 November 2026
- JWave, Terra Firme, de Alexandre Vale, abre o 36º Cine Ceará com estreia mundial
- Festival de Málaga, Yo no moriré de amor obtiene la Biznaga de Oro, 14 March 2026
- European Central Bank, euro foreign exchange reference rates, 13 November 2026