Caio Scott | Todos Os Prêmios Que Eu Nunca Te Dei (All the Awards I Never Gave You) / 2022

speeches of anger, love, and appreciation

by Douglas Messerli

 

Mel Carvalho and Lucas Drummond (screenplay), Caio Scott (director) Todos Os Prêmios Que Eu Nunca Te Dei (All the Awards I Never Gave You) / 2022 [17 minutes]

 

Brazilian director Caio Scott’s short film All the Awards I Never Gave You would make for a perfect pairing with Australian director Damian Overton’s Papercut (2018). Both of them feature male actors who have been a relationship with one another, having a showdown on the night of award ceremonies for which they are both nominated. And both are trapped in unpleasant locations wherein they have to face the truth of their relationship and their attitudes toward their careers, Overton trapping them in a limousine on the way to the award ceremony, and Scott locking them into a bathroom just before their category is to be announced.

     The less pleasant of the two, Papercut, is also a bit wittier than All the Awards I Never Game You, but if I had to meet up with both couples, I would certainly prefer to encounter Eduardo (Matheus Campos) and Gabriel (Lucas Drummond, also one of the screenwriters). Neither of them, fortunately, can match the self-centeredness and deceit of Kane of the Australian short—although there is one moment, when Gabriel (nicknamed Dudu) reminds Eduardo of all the ugly times and that even now he won’t admit that Gabriel has a chance at winning the award. “I’m competing for the same award as you. And you still don’t think I’m not good enough. You never really believed in me—not in my talent or my hardwork.” Reminding him that working at a store paid for all the bills the eight months Eduardo was unemployed, he argues “I moved to a goddamn city where I didn’t know anyone just to be here with you and you did absolutely nothing to help me.”

      Eduardo accuses him on posting naked pictures of himself on line which got him his job, and starting up an on-line relationship revealing private things about them as a couple. Eduardo feels that Dudu has cheated on him, despite their so-called open relationship, by hooking up with his fellow actor, Rafael.

      But as Dudu later accuses Eduardo: “Everything was about you? Your career, your dreams, your fears! What about me, huh?” Did Eduardo even wonder, Duda asks, whether he was happy in the relationship?

      Finally, Eduardo challenges him, “If being with me was so unbearable, why now try to fix things?”

      “Because I fucking love you.”

      After a long pause, Eduardo asks, “Why did you never tell me you felt this way?”

      The ugliness in this film, unlike Papercut, immediately heals over, as both admit to having seen the other’s film and liking it (Eduardo: “I lied. I did see your film. Six times actually”), the two being perhaps more than a little jealous of each other. Eduardo admits that he only agreed to an open relationship with Gabriel because he knew how important it was to him. If they could, they would wish to make up and begin all over again, but Eduardo admits he is in another relationship.

       “Are you happy?”

       Sheepishly, Eduardo shakes his head, “Yeah.”

       Dudu: “Well then…” he stands, “I’m happy too.”

       The two go back to the awards ceremony, wishing each other truly the best of good luck.

       Granted that Scott’s work is little more than a somewhat sophisticated soap opera; it is also beautifully filmed and credibly acted.

 

Los Angeles, July 29, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (July 2023).