Marco Dutra, a filmmaker and composer, was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, where he developed a fascination with the horror and fantasy genres. This influence is evident in his films, which often explore the intersection of the supernatural and the mundane, bringing shadows and ghosts into the domestic spaces of middle-class life.
Dutra's feature film debut, Good Manners, co-directed with Juliana Rojas, won the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival in 2017. This genre-bending film marked a departure from traditional horror and fantasy, instead opting for a more subtle and psychologically complex approach.
Prior to Good Manners, Dutra collaborated with Rojas on the film Hard Labor, which premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2011 and went on to receive the Citizen Kane Award in Sitges the same year. Both films were edited by Caetano Gotardo, a close friend and collaborator of Dutra's.
In 2020, Dutra and Gotardo collaborated on the film All the Dead Ones, which marked their first directorial collaboration and premiered in the Official Competition at the Berlin.ale Dutra's other features include the horror film When I Was Alive, which screened in Rome and Beijing Film Festivals, and the thriller The Silence of the Sky, which competed in Tokyo, Huelva, and Havana before opening worldwide on Netflix.
In addition to his work in film, Dutra has also directed episodes of the HBO series The Hypnotist and the Disney+ series Tarã, which is set to premiere in 2025. His latest film, the apocalyptic western Bury Your Dead, was released in 2024.
Marco Dutra lives between São Paulo and Cape Town with his husband, filmmaker John Trengove.
