Steve Solot of Rio Film Commission on the 2015 RioMarket

By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – For years Rio’s international film festival, Festival do Rio has included RioMarket, a section that features seminars and workshops for and about the film industry. Recently, President of the Rio Film Commission, Steve Solot, spoke with The Rio Times about his and the Rio Film Commission’s participation and workshop offerings during the upcoming Festival do Rio 2015.

This year the Festival do Rio will run from October 1st through October 14th and the RioMarket section will take place from September 30th through October 8th. Following a very successful edition in 2014, the RioMarket will once again include panels, seminars, workshops, and one on one meetings, among other activities that are geared toward the audiovisual industry. Additionally during this edition, the RioMarket will be divided into three segmented markets: RioMarket TV, RioMarket Film and RioMarket Advertising.

“The Festival do Rio / RioMarket is one of the two premier audiovisual events of Rio and all of Brazil,” Solot told The Rio Times. “The other is the Rio Content Market. Both events are instrumental to maintain Rio’s position as the leading audiovisual (film, TV documentary, commercials) production and filming hub in Latin America. The Rio Festival in particular is our primary platform for promotion of the city and state as ideal locations for film shoots.”

Solot will participate in four events during the upcoming RioMarket. The first will be the National Film Commission Workshop on October 4th. The open to the public event is sponsored by the Brazilian Film Commission Network (REBRAFIC), a new national non-profit Film Commission association that works to ensure support for national and international producers while promoting all regions of Brazil as locations sites for national and international productions.

“As in all international markets I attend,” Solot explained, “Cannes, Berlin, Guadalajara, Ventana Sur, American Film Market, etc, this week in the Toronto Film Festival/Market, I will be promoting all the film commissions of Brazil and their respective regions, through REBRAFIC, the new Brazilian Film Commission Network which I launched last March.”

“To ensure REBRAFIC’s international visibility we signed an agreement with the Association of Film Commissions International during the Cannes Film Market,” Solot continued. “As a result, besides Rio, there is now substantial demand and activity for shoots in Rio Grande do Sul, Amazonas and Bahia states.”

The second event Solot will participate in is “Talk-Show: How to do Business in the Audiovisual Sector of the Marvelous City,” which will take place on October 6th. Also on October 6th Solot will present the book launch and autograph session for “O Cinema Brasileiro Hoje: Ensaios de Críticos e Especialistas de Todo o Pais” (bilingual English-Portuguese edition).

Finally on October 7th, Solot will participate in American Day. Co-sponsored by the US Consulate and the Câmara de Comércio Americana do Rio de Janeiro (Amcham), American Day is a yearly festival event that features various panels on U.S. independent film-making and co-production. The activities also include a cocktail and a big premiere of a major US film. In the past the event has premiered films including “Argo,” which would go on to win the 2013 Academy Award for best picture.

When asked what he was looking forward to during this edition of the festival, Solot said, “Although the Festival is known for its superb films, both quality and quantity, I am necessarily focused on the Market, and over the past fifteen years I have coordinated with the organization to ensure that the RioMarket is internationally competitive with the other major film markets in the region, such as Guadalajara and Ventana Sur (Bs. As.)”

“Part of my job,” Solot added, “is to ensure that the international guests are prepared to do audiovisual business in Brazil, which is the impetus behind one of my technical publications The Brazilian Audiovisual Sector.”

This year’s RioMarket will also feature workshops and master classes about pilot script development for televison; writing for children’s televison; exploring technolgical innovations; audio mixing and post-production techniques with Avid Technology; exploring the games market in Brazil; screenwriting workshops with Gustavo Martinez; creative management and leadership on big productions with Iain Smith, a documentary workshop; a costume design workshop; and a camera and cinematography workshop, among others.

The seminars will include the keynote address,”Development in the American Market,” with Kim Newton; keynote address, “The Production of drama series from BBC”; a Transmedia keynote address with Robert Klinger; the keynote address, “The Success of Biblical Narratives” with Vivian de Oliveira; VOD: TV Everywhere; Crowdfunding – Case Example – ‘A Lenda do Herói’; “Unauthorized Video Biographies: Legal Situation,” and “Digital Piracy – Blocking Orders to ISPs for Copyright Infringement,” among other seminars.

For more informations about RioMarket, a complete schedule of events and how to register, see the official website here. For more information about the 2015 Festival do Rio see its official website. Also stay with The Rio Times for updates about the festival during the coming weeks.