Ten Days of Free Short Films in São Paulo, and How to Get a Seat
Brazil · Cinema
Key Facts
- —What happened São Paulo’s 37th Curta Kinoforum opens Thursday with 260 free short films across seven cinemas until 30 August.
- —How big a jump The festival spans 58 countries, with 109 films in the international selection and 127 Brazilian shorts.
- —The real story It is a low-cost, low-language-barrier way for newcomers to see Brazilians portray their own country.
- —The catch Entry is free but tickets are first-come at the box office one hour before each session, with no advance booking.
- —Who it touches MIS on Avenida Europa hosts Brazilian blocks, kids’ sessions and the closing best-of, seating about 170 per screening.
- —What comes next Popular 6pm and 8pm sessions fill fast, so arrive by 5pm; some programme also streams free online via Spcine Play.
Ten days of short films, none of them longer than your lunch break, and not one of them costs anything.
Short films are the easiest cinema to watch in a language you are still learning. Nothing lasts long, the story is usually told with pictures rather than dialogue, and if one does not work there is another along in four minutes. From Thursday there are free short films in São Paulo by the hundred — 260 of them, to be exact.
Where to see free short films in São Paulo
The Museu da Imagem e do Som is one of seven cinemas in this year’s Curta Kinoforum, and it is the one worth building an evening around. Its share of the programme is the Brazilian selection — the Mostra Brasil blocks, numbered one to twelve — plus the children’s sessions and the closing best-of. It screens on 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29 and 30 August, and is dark on the 24th and 28th.
Most evenings run two sessions, at 6pm and 8pm. On 25 August there are two Diálogos Urbanos sessions, one on São Paulo and one on Recife, which is as good an introduction to how Brazilians film their own cities as you will get in one night.
The closing weekend is the strongest. On 29 and 30 August MIS shows the 10+ blocks — ten Brazilian and ten foreign — plus a Destaques session of the festival’s highlights.
How to actually get in
This is the part people get wrong. Entry is free, but there is no online reservation and no advance booking. Tickets are released at the MIS box office one hour before each session, and popular blocks do fill.
So for a 6pm session, be at Avenida Europa 158 by 5pm. The room seats about 170, so the queue is real. On most evenings there is a second block two hours later, though on 22 and 23 August the 6pm session is the last one.
If you are bringing children, the Kids sessions are on 23 August at 2pm and 30 August at 10.30am and noon. The 30 August morning slot is billed as a marathon, which in practice means a long, cheerful, sit-down-and-stay session.
The rest of the festival
The full 37th Kinoforum is much larger: 260 films from 58 countries across the Cinemateca Brasileira, CineSesc, the Spcine circuit at the Centro Cultural São Paulo, Espaço Petrobras de Cinema, MIS and the two CINUSP rooms. Of those, 109 films from 55 countries make up the international selection — which is where to go if you want the view from outside Brazil. The opening was at CineSesc on 19 August at 8pm.
If you cannot get to a cinema, part of the programme streams free on Spcine Play, Porta Curtas, Itaú Cultural Play and Sesc Digital — useful if you are outside São Paulo, or outside Brazil.
Why this is worth your Thursday
If you have moved to Brazil recently, the cost of going out is the thing that surprises people most. A cinema ticket in São Paulo typically runs from about R$30 to R$60 (about US$6 to US$12), and a festival night elsewhere in the world would cost several times that. This costs nothing at all.
It is also a low-effort way to understand where you now live. Twelve blocks of Brazilian shorts is twelve blocks of Brazilians describing their own country to each other, without the filter of an export market. You will learn more in two hours there than in a month of news.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is the short film festival in São Paulo free?
Yes. Every session of the 37th Curta Kinoforum is free, in every venue, and part of the programme also streams free online. There is no advance booking at MIS: tickets are handed out at the box office one hour before each session, on a first-come basis.
How many films are showing and where?
The 37th Curta Kinoforum shows 260 films from 58 countries — 127 Brazilian and 133 foreign — of which 109 films from 55 countries form the international selection. They screen across seven cinemas: MIS, the Cinemateca Brasileira, CineSesc, the Spcine room at the Centro Cultural São Paulo, Espaço Petrobras de Cinema and the two CINUSP rooms. MIS carries the Brazilian selection.
Where is MIS and how do I get there?
The Museu da Imagem e do Som is at Avenida Europa 158, Jardim Europa, in the west of São Paulo. It is a short taxi or ride-hailing trip from Avenida Paulista; the nearest metro stations are a walk away, so most people arrive by car or app. Allow an hour before your session to collect a ticket.
Are the films subtitled?
Foreign films are subtitled in Portuguese, and every in-person session carries Portuguese subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, so Brazilian films are subtitled too — which many language learners find useful. Short films lean heavily on images, so the barrier is lower than at a feature-film festival.
Connected Coverage
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Sources: 37º Curta Kinoforum — official festival site; MIS São Paulo — the museum’s Kinoforum session list; Kinoforum — venue addresses and the international selection
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