Politics, Genre, Oscars: 10 Takeaways from the Rio Film Festival

It’s a big ambition to host a film festival during historic presidential elections that will shape the future of an entire country, but this year’s Rio Film Festival has managed to carefully and consciously draw the line between focusing on today’s cinema and industry and not turning a blind eye to tomorrow’s problems.

This year’s edition, which ran from October 1 to 11, featured two compelling queer films, “La Bola Negra” by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi and “Club Kid” by Jordan Firstman, introducing audiences to an up-and-coming segment of Brazilian cinema. Major national productions at the festival included Gabriel Martins’ “In the Name of My Son,” which was selected in Toronto, Allan Deberton’s Oscar-nominated “Gugu’s World,” Enock Carvalho and Mateus Farias’ Locarno-winning “The Riverbank,” and Victor di Marco and Márcio Picoli’s Venice Queer Lion award-winning “London.”

RioMarket’s bright hallways were also packed with enthusiastic industry experts and producers lining up for sessions on burning topics like Artificial Intelligence and audience development through TikTok. Under, DiversityThe main takeaways from this year’s festival, from the strong presence of young audiences to narrower bridges to Spain and the market’s focus on domestic audiences.

Politics is at the center

There was no escape. Because the festival’s first weekend coincided with the Brazilian presidential election, nearly every conversation heard at RioMarket in the early days of the event was laced with politics. Following the first round result in which current president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva lost to far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro by less than 2%. Diversity He published an in-depth report on the consequences of Bolsonaro’s possible mandate for the country’s thriving cinema. Two days later Diversity There was also news that several Brazilian film actors, including Kleber Mendonça Filho, Wagner Moura, Fernando Meirelles and Petra Costa, had signed an open letter drawing international attention to the second round of the elections, which will be held on October 25.

Despite the tensions brought by the elections, there was an undercurrent of camaraderie and hope at the festival since the first round of polls. Several filmmakers took to the stage at the festival to declare their support for Lula, including “Club Kid” director Jordan Firstman, who raised his hand in an “L” sign as he introduced the festival’s closing film at the Odeon on Saturday night.

Audience development needs screening rooms

In several panels this year at the festival’s industry sidebar, RioMarket, executives and producers frequently talked about the need to develop audiences in Brazil. The consensus was that the country already offers avid moviegoers, with many young audiences knowledgeable about international cinema thanks to healthy online communities; But there are still challenges when it comes to converting these movie fans into moviegoers. During one of the festival’s first industry sessions, a chat event with directors Marcelo Gomes and Rodrigo Santoro, festival director Ilda Santiago brought up a burning issue: the still small number of movie theaters in Brazil.

There are currently 3,538 screens in the country, 43% of which are concentrated in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. This figure is still very low considering that Brazil has a population of over 214 million. For reference, the United States has 35,000 to 40,000 commercial screens for a population of 349 million, while France has 6,355 screens for a population of 69 million.

Joint production power

After two years of international success with Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here” and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent”, this year Brazil made a splash at international festivals with high-profile co-productions. Examples include Abinash Bikram Shah’s “Elephants in the Fog,” Marcelo Martinessi’s “Narciso,” Benjamin Naishtat’s “Glaxo,” Marco Becchis’s “Return to Buenos Aires,” Dominga Sotomayor’s “La Perra,” and Bruno Santamaría Razo’s “Six Months in the Pink and Blue Building.”

This momentum also showed itself at the festival. Leading production companies such as MyMama Entertainment and Bubbles Project announced their upcoming projects during the event; The first one is working on “Ibicaba: O Paraíso Prometido” by Locarno winner Andrea Štaka, starring Ella Rumpf and Júlio Andrade, while the second one is preparing for the shooting of “I Love You and Everything Looks Good Today” by Maria Alché, the director of “Points”. Many manufacturers spoke on industry panels about the importance of finding global partners and alternative financing structures, especially in times of political instability that could lead to a contraction or collapse of Brazil’s public funds in the near future.

Local audiences are important

As international co-productions proliferate, Brazilian producers have once again emphasized the importance of making films for their local audiences. Brazil is a huge market with an enthusiastic and enthusiastic audience that still largely consumes foreign films and television; but savvy producers and filmmakers are working to change this trend. Gustavo Mello, partner of the large Boutique Filmes banner, said: Diversity Brazil remains their top priority since their hugely successful Netflix series “3%.” “We need to produce for Brazil, and that must remain our focus. When we do this well, our business spreads.”

Festival director Ilda Santiago reflects this move in the program of Premiere Brasil, the section of the festival devoted to Brazilian cinema that has been divided into many subcategories in recent years. “Brazilian cinema is not a singular thing,” he says Diversity. “Our cinema is plural. I don’t want audiences to say they’re going to the cinema to watch a Brazilian film; I want them to look for genre films, dramas, coming-of-age films, which are exactly Brazilian.”

kids are fine

In a year when the success of Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms” and Curry Barker’s “Obsession” sent the industry into a frenzy, there’s an undercurrent of hope among young audiences returning to theaters. This proved to be true in Rio, where young moviegoers lined up outside festival venues and excitedly discussed upcoming screenings while scrolling through their Letterboxd accounts. Interestingly, younger audiences aren’t just lining up for screenings of big international hits, but also for more obscure festival titles and filling industry sessions at RioMarket. It was heartening to watch attentive school students attend an important industry session on women in cinema, organized in partnership with European Film Promotion, and to hear the hubbub of excited cinemagoers preparing to attend a free screening of “Gugu’s World” at the beautiful FGV Cultural Center venue.

Genre matters…

Pablo Guisa Koestinger, founder of Mórbido Film Fest and general manager of the Fantastic Pavilion at the Marché du Film, was in Rio for the first time to launch Fantastic: Brazil at the festival. The new industry platform for genre cinema in the country is a partnership between Fantastic Pavilion Cannes, Rio Market, Festival do Rio, FICCI Industria, #LINK Documentary Industry Meeting, Mórbido Film Fest and Sitges and has launched three calls for emerging voices in Latin American genre cinema.

This year’s festival also featured genre titles among Brazilian cinema highlights, including Maju de Paiva and Bernardo Florim’s “Diário do Fogo,” Ricardo Alves Jr.’s psychological thriller “The French Teacher” and Gustavo Vinagre and Gurcius Gewdner’s fantasy B film “Bowels of Hell.”

… But it’s not just fear

While horror was at the forefront among the genre films that attracted audiences at the festival, this year’s program showed how Brazilian filmmakers took interesting risks in other genres. Tomás Portella’s “Overman,” Brazil’s response to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is based on the comics by famed cartoonist Laerte; The film stars star Caco Ciocler as the sex-addicted superhero in a delightful romp featuring villains who torment citizens with their stinky farts and an archenemy called the Dirty Capitalist.

Speaking of enjoyment, “My First Girlfriend” is another major highlight of the festival. The romantic comedy reunites “City of God” director Kátia Lund with the film’s star, Jonathan Haagensen; Together, the duo directs a captivating, deeply Brazilian love story led by a promising young cast including Faíska Alves, Cecilia Sanchez, Pedro Ottoni and Jordana Morena. Finally, “Rio” and “Ice Age” director Carlos Saldanha ushered Brazil into the world of blockbuster adventure film with his ambitious Brazilian closing premiere, “100 Days,” about Amyr Klink’s pioneering crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a small rowing boat.

A solid bridge to Spain

Given the heavy Spanish presence in Rio, it was fitting that Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo’s Cannes film “La Bola Negra” opened this year’s festival. Veteran Spanish producer Esther García, a long-time collaborator of Pedro Almodóvar, chaired this year’s Brazilian Premiere jury, while the program screened a number of standout Spanish films. Titles include “Ashes” by Diego Luna, “The Good Daughter” by Júlia de Paz Solvas and “Iván & Hadoum” by Ian De La Rosa.

Santiago tells Diversity The relationship between Spain and Brazil is a “natural” one, a bridge that is growing stronger thanks to Brazilians’ increasing identification with their Latin roots and their interest in Spanish-speaking stories. “Today I see young people in Brazil actively trying to learn Spanish, which is something I didn’t see 10 years ago,” he says. “The new Brazilian generation has a latent desire to connect with their Latin heritage and cultural identity.”

“Brazilian cinema wants to stay in touch with Latin cinema, and Latin cinema wants to take advantage of the huge market in Brazil,” he adds. “Spain unites much of Spanish-speaking cinema and I believe it is an ideal partner that will allow us to grow as an industry and increasingly partner with the world.”

Real life is real togetherness

Turn a corner in Rio’s lively Botafogo district and expect long lines for screenings of major festival films like “Wild Horse Nine” or “Coward”; But while these films still draw crowds, some of the longest lines at this year’s festival were for films that tell the real-life stories of Brazilian legends. Pedro Waddington’s “Fernanda,” which follows the career of legendary “Central Station” actress Fernanda Montenegro, was one of the most popular films on the market, along with other interesting productions such as Prime Video’s “Marília Mendonça – Um Sentimento Louco,” Eryk Rocha’s “Elza” and Renato Terra, Marcos Caetano and Leo Caetano’s “Alucinação.”

Oscar is closer than ever

In the last two years, thanks to “I’m Still Here” and “Secret Agent,” the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has recognized Brazilians’ unique passion for online media. Last year, Academy CEO Bill Kramer attended the Rio Film Festival for the first time, where he said the outrage over Salles’ film was “historic.” “It has been exciting to see the growth on our social media channels and the growing audience in Latin America,” he added. “It was incredible to watch the videos of people stopping their Carnival celebrations to watch the awards.”

This year, the festival reiterated its partnership with the Academy by inviting Michael Benedict, director of member relations and awards management, and Taylor Morales, associate director of film archives – film preservation and public access, to speak at RioMarket. While Academy representatives spoke about the importance of Brazil to the organization, they stated that they were “increasingly” focusing on “global cinema” after Benedict told the curious audience how they would submit their films to the Oscars.