BRICS as a film journey: Brazil
In 2019, 169 locally produced films were released in Brazil. The most successful of them was the comedy “My Life on Mars,” the box office of which was comparable to Disney’s “Aladdin.” In general, film distribution in Brazil is almost entirely owned by Hollywood. Over the past 10 years, local producers have managed to top the annual box office only once – this was at the end of 2019, when the comedy “You Can’t Get Bored With My Mom – 3” was released. With a budget of $2 million, the film earned $39 million and remains the highest-grossing domestic release in Brazilian box office history.
But this is rather an exception: Brazilian viewers most often choose proven Hollywood hits. Last year, for example, “Barbie” topped the box office by a wide margin over its competitors, collecting $43,8 million. It was followed by “Super Mario Brothers in the Movies,” “Fast and Furious 10,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” – mostly spectacular commercial films, while “Oppenheimer” was content with a modest ninth line.
Fall and rise
In 2023, the total box office in Brazil was $2,3 billion. This is a very good result, 25% more than in 2022. But at the same time, all national cinema collections amounted to 3% of this amount. The industry has been sounding the alarm for a long time: over the past four years it has experienced the worst crisis in the last 30 years, and that figure of 169 films will be perceived for a long time as an unattainable bar. Among the reasons are political changes and the pandemic, which have crashed the industry and virtually deprived cinemas of quality local content. At the end of 2023, the total cash register in the country was three times less than in Mexico.
On the other hand, right now we can see how the Brazilian film industry is gradually getting up from its knees and returning to life. At February's Berlin Film Festival, 46 Brazilian producers announced more than 80 projects in various stages of development. A number of films have already been presented in the program, including in Panorama.
There is renewed investment in cinema, with production taking place not only in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, but also in the regions. It is reported that more than 40% of the directors of new projects are women, and the genres are dominated by horror, thrillers and fantasy, as well as social subjects, including those related to immigration. The market has already reacted. In January alone, My Sister and Me, Our Home 2 and Mamonas Assassinas: The Movie attracted more than 3 million viewers.
Brazilian professionals expect to reach the level of 25% of total annual fees by the end of 2024, which seems a very bold and optimistic, but motivating forecast.
Lump people
Among the most promising releases are the following. “Beachers 2” by Roberto Santucci is a continuation of his own comedy hit, which was watched in cinemas by 2018 million viewers in 2,5. “Auto on Compassion 2” is also a sequel, only the first part was released more than 20 years ago. Its director, Gael Arraez, after a number of series, returns to classic cinema and will present to the public a new satirical comedy with beloved characters. He also has a more intimate film “Grande Sertão” due out this year.
But, of course, the greatest hope lies in the directors of auteur cinema, thanks to whom Brazil has long existed as a very important territory for millions of cinephiles around the world. This year, for example, the classic Walter Salles will release his new film “I’m Still Here” based on the bestseller of the same name by Marcelo Rubens Paiva. He is well known all over the world, his “Che Guevara: The Motorcycle Diaries” became one of Gael García Bernal’s best roles, and Jack Kerouac’s free film adaptation of “On the Road” brought together a whole bunch of Hollywood superstars in the cast. And even earlier there were “Central Station” and “Last Sun”, with “Station” winning at the Berlin Film Festival in 1998.
Andrusha Waddington is another notable figure, also due to her roots, which she owes to her Russian name. He won Un Certain Regard at Cannes with Me, You, Them, made a splash at Sundance with The Sand House, and is now preparing a new film, Vitoria, for release.
Market players
The task facing the Brazilian industry now is difficult. Streaming giants burst into the market, offering Portuguese-language content producers very attractive conditions and virtually global distribution. Suffice it to say that Netflix alone launched 2021 Brazilian originals in 18, including nine feature films, three series, three documentaries and three more reality shows. There are currently 26 titles in production at the same time. Against the background of modest successes at the box office, the Netflix order looks more advantageous, and the only downside here is that the rights will remain with the streaming company. Well, the fact is that streaming companies are more interested in spectator projects, so those studios that produce mass content survived thanks to these orders.
But art cinema had a hard time. The most famous Brazilian director in the world, Fernando Meirelles, after “The Two Popes” has not released another feature film - he is working on series for platforms. One of them, “Sugar” starring Colin Farrell, will be released in April on Apple TV+, this is one of the platform’s most intriguing projects this season. On April 14, HBO will release another of his projects, “The Sympathizer,” a mini-series that Meirelles directed together with Park Chan-wook and Marc Munden. Of course, cinephiles expect more from the creator of City of God, one of the most striking films of the XNUMXst century, but Meirelles has long been cramped within the national industry, so he is already working on a global scale.
Old new names
Which contemporary Brazilian authors should you pay attention to? Ilda Santiago, director of the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, highlights several names and titles that are worth checking out immediately. This is an experienced documentarian and debutante in feature films, Flavia Neves. Her full-length “Fogaréu” was presented at the Berlinale the year before; it was a surreal drama about how a woman returns to her homeland and there enters into a confrontation with the mayor of a tiny town, who is also her uncle, and in this confrontation exposes the long-standing conflicts of Brazilian society .
Director Julia Murat won the prestigious Locarno International Film Festival in 2022 with the feminist drama Rule 34. The theme of the film is confrontation with sexual violence. The blurb reads that the film "takes Brazilian cinema back to the anarchic achievements of fringe cinema, a powerful and politically charged work that is sure to leave a lasting mark." It is not yet known what Julia Murat is working on now.
Gabriel Martins has long been known to festival audiences. The horror film “The Bonds of the Devil” (where Martins worked as a co-author) was shown at specialized screenings, “In the Heart of the World” was in Rotterdam. But the drama “Mars One,” about a boy who dreams of space in a family where there is no room for dreams at all, was nominated by Brazil for the 2023 Oscars. In Brazil, Martins received prizes for the best directing, script and editing for this film.
It’s worth finishing with the fact that in Brazil they have a very favorable attitude towards Russian cinema. According to Comscore data provided by Roskino, over the past year our films collected there (by the beginning of December) more than 700 thousand dollars, and the cartoon “Cats of the Hermitage” earned the most. “Finnik”, “Star Mind” and “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” were also released there.
