The Rio Film Festival is Latin America's largest event

The Rio Film Festival is Latin America's largest event of its kind, and is one of the largest venues for world cinema. During the fifteen days of the festival, producers, sales agents, broadcasters, and many other audio-visual professionals come from all over the world to participate. Last year, the Festival screened more than 436 films and thousands of spectators packed the Festival's theaters to see the best films from Brazil and abroad.

The event, over the course of fifteen days, is attended by more than 200 invited foreigners, including executives, producers, directors, and distributors from 60 countries. All of the most important cinematographic firms from around the globe, from major companies to independent studios, were present to take advantage of rioscreenings&seminars, the Festival's seminar and marketing sector based in the Hotel Le Meridién. This year will mark the largest incarnation of the event, and for the first time, will include the riomarket.

This year, the Rio Film Festival is featuring a series of incredible seminars, presented by some of the most important executives from Brazil and abroad in the film industry. Amongst the speakers, Doug Hansen (Endgame Entertainment), Genna Terranova (Weinstein Co./ VP of Acquisitions), Joseph Woolf (Managing Director, Entertainment Finance/ Citibank), Kathryn Galan (NALIP/ Executive Director), Kristin Jones (Miramax/ VP of Acquisitions), Mickey Mayerson (Loeb & Loeb/ Entertainment Attorney), Pedro Rodriguez (IDC/ CEO), Roberto Jenkins (Cinemark México/ General Director), Steve Krone (Village Roadshow Pictures/ President and COO), Steve Mangel (IFG/ President) and Steven O'Dell (Sony/ VP of Distribution).

Some of this year's themes include: "Investment Funds for the Multimedia Arts", "New Technology", "The Digital Market", "International Independent Film Market", "Copyright, Creative Commons and the Multimedia Sector", "The Latin American Market" and "Cinema: Examining Our Media".

Rioseminars will take place from September 25th to October 3rd and will feature extremely relevant panels, along with information about the newest technologies and techniques. Admissions are already available at the Festival's website, www.festivaldorio.com.br until September 10th.

Rioscreenings will take place from September 24th to October 4th and is dedicated to the world's newest productions. The event will include an infrastructure of several video and DVD stalls available to producers, distributors, and broadcasters, and is an excellent opportunity to showcase and sell audiovisual products from Brazil and abroad.

Currently, we are accepting feature, medium-length and short-length documentaries, fictions, children's films, animations and new formats along with television programs in VHS, NTSC, and DVD formats produced between 2004 and 2006, accompanied by technical information and promotional material. Products still in post-production are also welcome to participate. Up to five products may be submitted by a single company. Each company should include postage to return the films that have been sent.


This year, we are introducing a new sector of the Festival: riomarket, a new space dedicated to the audiovisual industry. With the purpose of simplifying the system of production, distribution, and exhibition of Brazilian films and shows, riomarket will create a forum where producers can watch seminars and panels, participate in pitching their projects, and meet with some of the most important buyers of the national and international markets.

The entire event, including pitching sessions and business meetings, will occur in a pavillion built exclusively for the Rio Film Festival on Copacabana beach, and will break for lunch every day.

Riomarket will be two days that cannot be missed by any audiovisual market professional. Distributors and exhibiters from Brazil and abroad will be searching for films by Brazilian producers for possible acquisition.