Gabriel Domingues is nominated for the first-ever Best Casting Oscar for The Secret Agent. He is the first Brazilian in the category and, at 34, the youngest nominee in the inaugural class by over a decade.
His first job in casting was as an assistant on Kleber Mendonca Filho's Aquarius in 2016. He had just left film school. Nine years later, they reunited for The Secret Agent — a $5.6 million political thriller that landed four Oscar nominations including Best Picture.
Domingues cast the film as what he calls "a mosaic of Brazil" — mixing established names like Wagner Moura with debut actors from Recife. The other four casting nominees have resumes dating back to the 1990s. Domingues did not get his first credit until 2016.
The category exists because people fought for decades to create it. Domingues is proof it was worth the wait.