In 2025, Walter Salles made history when he won Brazil with “I’m Still Here” its first-ever Oscar for a Portuguese-language film directed by a Brazilian, beating “Emilia Pérez” for Best International Film. Mere weeks after that historic night, Brazil doubled down on that momentum, with Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent” winning a rare two prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. The film would then be nominated in five categories at this year’s Oscars, including Best Picture.
Following this unprecedented level of international success – which Brazil only saw in the early 2000s with Salles’s “Central Station” and Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s “City of God” coming out within the space of three years – the eyes of the global industry turned to what the major South American country would do next. In 2026, no primarily Brazilian production made the prestigious competition slots at either Cannes, Berlin or Venice. James Gray’s “Paper Tiger” is the exception, produced by Rodrigo Teixeira’s leading banner RT Features, but shot in English, with an English-speaking cast, and directed by an American auteur.
Brazil’s presence at this year’s festival circuit was solidified through a series of interesting co-productions, which saw the country forge rare or never-before-seen partnerships with countries like Nepal and Finland. Brazilian co-productions this year include titles like Abinash Bikram Shah’s “Elephants in the Fog,” Marcelo Martinessi’s “Narciso,” Benjamin Naishtat’s “Glaxo,” Marco Becchis’ “Back to Buenos Aires,” Dominga Sotomayor’s “La Perra” and Bruno Santamaría Razo’s “Six Months in a Pink and Blue Building.” The crop of co-productions was so strong this year that the upcoming Rio Film Festival has created a strand within its strands to highlight how Brazil is working with international partners. Speaking with Variety, festival director Ilda Santiago says that, two decades ago, you would see only one or two countries involved in bringing a film to life.
These are four production countries having to conciliate their funds, their ways of working, to bring a vision to life and to make sure that a story can travel as wide as it can.” “When you see co-productions with countries like Nepal or Finland, you see how vast the reach of Brazilian producers and our industry is,” she adds. But we also need to tell the public about these co-productions and show them how international our industry is.” Santiago says Brazil “really needs to develop” the way it communicates “the dynamics of the business to the wider public.” “Laymen don’t necessarily need to know the minutiae of production; they don’t need to understand complex financial equations, but they need to understand the size of the Brazilian entertainment and audiovisual industry, especially when it comes to how much money it brings to the country.” Last year, an Oxford Economics study commissioned by the Motion Picture Association revealed that the Brazilian audiovisual industry generated over 58% more jobs than the automotive industry, generating over 600,000 direct and indirect jobs. 34 Filmes producer Cibele Amaral, who worked on Becchis’ Venice competition title “Back to Buenos Aires” alongside an Italian team, said the co-pro model “allows us to have partners with great influence in the international market, which opens great possibilities for the film.” “Brazil has managed to increase its number of co-productions thanks to assertive public policies that encompass co-production treaties, incentives for international exchange at markets and especially open calls exclusively dedicated to co-productions as part of the Audiovisual Sector Fund (ASF).” The ASF, or the Fundo Setorial Audiovisual, is a public fund created to finance, develop, and support the country’s film and television industry. It is Brazil’s primary financing system, established in 2006, operating under the country’s Ministry of Culture and managed by Brazil’s National Cinema Agency, ANCINE.
This is still an issue when it comes to making Brazil a truly competitive country.” Amaral listed some of the other advantages of co-producing with Brazil, including production services at lower rates, incredibly high-quality crews, and tax deductions and incentives in certain states. Official co-production requests have grown from 56 in 2023 to 140 in 2025—a 150% jump. Yes, we have had more interest, especially by European producers who see how Brazil can offer a rare mix: dense narratives, specialized crews, and access to public financing.
What we still lack is institutional foresight.” De Jongh notes how, historically, the countries that offer the greatest strategic advantages possess three key elements: a co-producing tradition, stable financing mechanisms, and cultural or historical affinity.
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