South America’s Largest Film Festival Begins in Rio Oct. 6

By Sarah Brown, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Festival do Rio will present the largest film festival in Latin America between Thursday, October 6th and Sunday, October 16th in Rio de Janeiro. The festival will showcase around 250 titles within its fifteen festival sections, representing film production from sixty countries

The films will be screened at twenty venues throughout the city, including a special screening at the new Olympic Boulevard in the city’s downtown area, one of the most outstanding legacies left to Rio from this year’s Olympic Games. “The move to the popular Olympic Boulevard  area is an attempt to integrate a new audience,” explains Ilda Santiago executive director of the festival, to G1 news.

The new screening at the Olympic Boulevard in Praça Mauá is outside of the regular festival circuit and will stage several films that will appeal to all age groups and preferences.

The festival will also take place in new areas of Rio such as Barra da Tijuca, with the opening event at Cidades das Artes for the first time ever. “This year we are back in Barra, in downtown,” says Ilda Santiago. “It’s a case of convincing new audiences of the idea of you venturing out to see various films that you wouldn’t see in a regular situation of catching a movie at the cinema.”

This festival is a celebration of film production and culture, exhibiting films from a wide range of genres from documentaries to comedies. Running closely alongside the festival is RioMarket, a unique event that gathers industry professionals from across the world to participate in its program of more than fifty panels, twenty workshops, and master classes. It cultivates a valuable center for content providers to present their projects for coproduction, acquisition and distribution opportunities.

One of the main highlights of the event will be a world premiere screening of U.S. director Steve Bernstein’s Dominion with a red carpet gala screening on Friday, October 7th. The film explores the final days in the life of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas which were spent in New York. It stars Welsh actor Rhys Ifans who plays Thomas. Another film highly anticipated is It’s Only The End of The World, directed by Xavier Dolan.

This year will present three new sections to the program. The first is Cinema Novo/Interseções/Cinema Marginal that explores the two core movements in Brazilian cinema with films by the great and influential Brazilian filmmakers Carlos Diegues, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Ruy Guerra, David Neves, Walter Lima Jr., Flávio Migliaccio, Carlos Reichenbach, José Agrippino de Paula, Álvaro Guimarães, André Farias and Elyseu Visconti.

Universal Monster will present restored American horror classics between 1930 and 1954 including Dracula (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). The final new section, Wanderer Artists pays a tribute to Tunga, a Brazilian plastic artist that is considered one of the most important in recent years, through the screening of two films about the artist directed by Murilo Salles.

The film festival will take place over the eleven day period throughout the city. For the complete program, check the website for location, tickets and times.

What: Festival do Rio
When: Thursday, October 6th – Sunday, October 16th
Where: Various locations throughout the city
Entrance: See site for more details.