Ricardo Teodoro, winner of the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award of the 63rd Semaine de la Critique in Cannes

The Louis Roederer Foundation, true to its desire to reveal emerging talent, has been involved alongside La Semaine de la Critique since 2018 through the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award. Given to an actor or actress from one of the seven feature films in competition, the aim of this Prize is to highlight a performer for one of their first film appearances or for a particularly outstanding role in their career.

The jury of the 63rd Semaine de la Critique awarded the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award to Ricardo Teodoro for his role in Baby  by Brazilian director Marcelo Caetano.

The film depicts a complex relationship between a young former delinquent and an older man - played by Ricardo Teodoro, chosen after a public appeal of the director on the web - who takes him under his wing.

After leaving a juvenile detention center, Wellington finds himself alone and adrift on the streets of São Paulo. He has no news of his parents and no resources to start a new life. He meets Ronaldo, a mature man who teaches him new ways to survive. Little by little, their relationship turns into a conflicting passion.

“The members of the jury were unanimous in their praise for Ricardo Teodoro's interpretation of the stakes and contradictions of his character Ronaldo. Embodying strength and power as much as vulnerability and tenderness, his masterful performance eludes any Manichean reading and captures us with accuracy and sincerity.” Audrey Bazin, Artistic Director of the Louis Roederer Foundation

The jury was chaired by French producer Sylvie Pialat, accompanied by Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire, Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej, Canadian journalist and film critic Ben Croll and French filmmaker Iris Kaltenbäck.