Maria Dulce Saldanha

With a background in theater, the Rio de Janeiro native made her debut on the Rio stages, where her interactions with prominent figures in the artistic scene provided her with a solid foundation in playwriting, acting, and production.

In the 1990s, amidst the shutdown of the Brazilian audiovisual industry, filmmaking seemed unfeasible. However, while participating in a film by Gabriel Retes in Mexico, she encountered a collaborative and independent model that merged the essence of theater with Hollywood technology—an experience where she found her true calling. Inspired by the autonomy of Mexican cinema, she founded Cinelândia Produções alongside Diego de la Texera. As an executive and creative producer, she combined technical mastery of film industry mechanisms with an active presence in the artistic process, naturally paving her path toward directing.

At Cinelândia, she produced the feature films Meteoro, by Diego de la Texera, and Através da Sombra, by Walter Lima Jr., which screened at prestigious festivals, as well as the short documentary Na Cola do Sapateado, which toured Brazil and marked her first experience in film directing. In theater, she wrote and produced the musicals Na Cola do Sapateado and Pé na Estrada—the latter recipient of the Municipal em Cena cultural grant.

In television, she served as executive producer for the series Brasil de Todos os Ritmos on the Music Box Brasil channel. In the publishing market, she dedicated herself to editing the books Sandino: La última 'guerra bananera' and Las Películas que nunca hice, both by Diego de la Texera and released in Puerto Rico. Currently, she is producing the documentary Amazônia, Meu Amor, which marks her debut in feature film directing.