---
name: "Petra Costa"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/petra-costa"
fi1m_id: "petra-costa"
imdb_id: "nm3525467"
tmdb_id: 1142917
wikidata_id: "Q7178628"
roles: ["Producer","Director"]
born: "8 July 1983"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "producer"
average_over: 0
updated: "2026-10-03T03:52:29.490744+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Petra Costa

## Identity

Petra Costa

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/petra-costa
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** petra-costa
- **IMDb ID:** nm3525467
- **TMDB ID:** 1142917
- **Wikidata ID:** Q7178628
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra_Costa, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7178628, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3525467/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1142917

Producer and director. Born 8 July 1983 in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

## Details

- **Work:** Producer, Director
- **Born:** 8 July 1983, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra_Costa, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7178628, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3525467/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1142917

## Streaming the US now

- **Netflix:** [*Apocalypse in the Tropics*](https://film.one/film/apocalypse-in-the-tropics.md) (73)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Biography

Petra Costa is a Brazilian filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and narrator. She was born on 8 July 1983 in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. She studied performing arts at the University of São Paulo, anthropology at Barnard College, Columbia University, and completed a master's degree at the London School of Economics.

Her feature documentaries include *Elena* (2012), which premiered at IDFA, *The Edge of Democracy* (2019), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, and *Apocalypse in the Tropics* (2024), which she also wrote and produced. She is the founder of the production company Busca Vida Filmes.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, variety.com, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Apocalypse in the Tropics* (2025), Fi1m 73, as Self — [page](https://film.one/film/apocalypse-in-the-tropics.md)

## Complete filmography (12)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Reading the World* (2025), Executive Producer
- *Apocalypse in the Tropics* (2025), Director, Producer, Writer — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/film/apocalypse-in-the-tropics.md)
- *Beba* (2022), Executive Producer
- *The Edge of Theocracy* (2020), as Petra Costa
- *Babenco: Tell Me When I Die* (2020), Associate Producer
- *Ecstasy* (2020), Producer
- *The Edge of Democracy* (2019), Director, Writer, Producer
- *Nobody's Watching* (2017), as Petra
- *Olmo and the Seagull* (2015), Director, Writer
- *Elena* (2013), Director, Writer
- *Undertow Eyes* (2011), Producer, Writer, Director, Editor, Cinematography
- *Secrets of the Tribe* (2010), Assistant Editor

## Gallery

- ![Petra Costa](https://film.one/media/person/5513017/gallery-b2c7fc1e9b9e.jpg) Petra Costa — Busca Vida Filmes, CC BY-SA 3.0 pt, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Petra_Costa.jpg/1280px-Petra_Costa.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Petra Costa](https://film.one/media/person/5513017/gallery-c7e1a9538cf3.jpg) Petra Costa — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated

- 2020: Best Documentary Feature Film (nominated), for *The Edge of Democracy*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/petra-costa