Janaina Wagner (Brazil, 1989) works across film, drawing, and installations that combine references from art history, cinema, and literature. Utilising fiction to discuss the relationships of limits and control that human beings establish with their surroundings, her work presents a critical understanding on how notions of progress and legacy are articulated through a constellation of tales, facts, myths, images and memories. Currently on a PhD at Le Fresnoy-Studio National des Arts Contemporains (FR), Wagner is also developing her first feature film, the experimental documentary The Bag of the Night.
Janaina Wagner
Janaina Wagner participated in “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025, a first-ever poll of its kind as a collective love letter to the art of short-form moving image. yanco and Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, in collaboration with Talking Shorts, invited filmmakers, curators, distributors, critics, and scholars worldwide to nominate 10 audiovisual works under sixty minutes that they personally consider the “greatest” of all time. This was Janaina Wagner’s submission:
| Movie | Original Title | Director | Country | Year | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quebrante | Janaina Wagner | Brazil | 2024 | 23’ | ||
| Curupira and the Machine of the Destiny Curupira e a máquina do destino | Janaina Wagner | Brazil, France | 2021 | 24’ | ||
| One Thousand and One Attempts to Be an Ocean | Yuyan Wang | France | 2020 | 11’ | ||
| Green Vinyl Vinil Verde | Kleber Mendonça Filho | Brazil | 2004 | 17’ | ||
| Fantasmas | André Novais Oliveira | Brazil | 2010 | 11’ | ||
| Seven Years in May Sete Anos em Maio | Affonso Uchôa | Argentina, Brazil | 2019 | 42’ | ||
| Cordilheira de Amora II | Jamille Fortunato | Brazil | 2015 | 12’ | ||
| A Woman Thinking Thuë pihi kuuwi – Uma Mulher Pensando | Aida Harika Yanomami, Roseane Yariana Yanomami, Edmar Tokorino Yanomami | Brazil | 2023 | 9’ | ||