Portuguese true-crime title Gisberta – Life and Death of a Trans Woman has found two distinct sets of buyers before it premieres. Prime Video has taken SVOD rights in Portugal, while public broadcaster RTP has taken free-to-air and AVOD rights, the producers confirmed to Variety.
A three-window Portuguese deal
The four-part series, with 45-minute episodes, is in post-production at Lisbon-based Volf Entertainment, which is producing with Brazil’s Ultravioleta. Brazilian filmmaker Rodrigo Rebouças created the project and co-directs with Leonel Vieira, who also serves as showrunner.
- Prime Video: SVOD rights in Portugal.
- RTP: free-to-air and AVOD rights.
- International: About Premium Content is attached for sales.
Why this matters for buyers
The deal splits one local title across three monetisation routes: subscription streaming, linear free TV and ad-supported on-demand. For platform and broadcaster executives, that is a test of how far a single Portuguese true-crime title can stretch, rather than being locked inside one service.
The series revisits the 2006 murder of Gisberta Salce Júnior, a Brazilian transgender woman killed in Porto after being tortured by 14 minors from the Catholic-run Oficina de São José. The teenagers were acquitted of homicide, although some received lesser penalties or educational measures. The case triggered outrage in Portugal and Brazil, and the docuseries draws on archive footage, court records, Gisberta’s letters, interviews and dramatised reconstructions.
The route from festival to platform
The project was presented at Conecta Fiction & Entertainment in Toledo in 2024, where it won two awards: Acorde music-licensing support and an invitation to Chile’s Sanfic Industria Series Lab and pitching sessions.
“The Conecta awards gave the project a good boost: they were the springboard for us to pitch it to Amazon Prime,” Vieira told Variety. “With most of the financing secured between Amazon and the Portuguese cash rebate, we then approached the public broadcaster RTP, which also decided to come on board.”
Vieira says the title is Volf’s first move into true crime and, “I believe, the first to be produced for a streaming platform in Portugal.” APC will handle international sales; if the series performs, Volf says another true-crime story could follow.
True crime as a buyer magnet
True crime continues to travel because it carries a built-in, searchable story and low need for star casting. For Prime Video, the docuseries is a local factual title that can satisfy Portuguese subscribers without bearing the cost of a fully global commission. For RTP, the AVOD window aligns with its public mandate and ad-funded reach.
For producers, the sequence matters: the Conecta Fiction awards gave the package recognisable validation, which helped open the Amazon conversation before the public broadcaster was approached. It is a reminder that a festival or market win can function as a de-risking tool, not just an accolade.
Source: Variety
