RIO DE JANEIRO – Leonardo Edde, president director of Rio’s state-owned film agency RioFilme announced a package of incentives for film and TV production and distribution worth a total R$ 131 million ($23 million) during a panel at Rio2C on Thursday.
With Edde joined on the panel by Alex Braga, president director of Brazilian film-TV agency Ancine, and Marcio Tavares, exec secretary of Brazil’s Ministry of Culture, the round table also allowed its speakers to set some priorities for federal and Rio film-TV policy.
Brazil’s federal government will put up R$100 million ($17.5 million) of the package tapping into its powerful Audiovisual Sector Fund (FSA), administered by Ancine; Rio’s City Hall will cover the remaining R$31 million ($5.5 million) as part of a pioneering cooperation between federal and local governments.
RioFilme will distribute the coin to Rio-based companies through public tenders, a usual practice in Brazil. The call for applications opens June 25.
The public-sector aid package also includes incentives to different areas of production and distribution. A total of R$39 million ($6.8 million) will be destined to complement the financing of 12 live-action or animated feature film projects with strong B.O. potential.
Another R$20 million ($3.5 million) will complement the financing of 10 low-budget film projects. In both cases, in order to apply, producers must already have raised part of their pics’ financing, but not enough to go into production.
A second line of incentives totalling R$16 million ($2.8 million) aims to complement the financing of six fictional live-action or animated series.
The package also includes a R$5 million ($880,000) funding line for the development of films, TV series, animations and docs projects.
For distribution, the package has an R$8 million ($1.4 million) subsidy budget to fund the theatrical release of 10 features.
“For us in Ancine, having a local partner is very positive, because it assures that the funding will be properly invested. We understand that Rio de Janeiro is strategic for the development of the film and TV industry in Brazil,” said Braga.
Edde praised the cooperation with the federal government and vowed to continue.
“As of July, we will be negotiating with the federal government a second round of financing that hopefully will be in place by the end of this year,” he said.
Tavares talked about one of the key issues for Brazilian producer and government alike, the creation of investment quotas for VOD players in Brazil, along the lines of those created in many E.U. states.
“In these two and a half years of (President Lula’s) government, we invested more in the audiovisual sector than any other government. The next step is the regulation of the streamers,” Tavares said. “We must pass the regulation in Congress this year. With the recent international prizes, Brazilians are proud of their films, and we must profit from this favorable scenario to approve the regulations.”
Latin America’s largest creativity event, Rio2C takes place in Rio over May 27 – June 1.
