🎥 Brazilian cinema is Still Here

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Hello! Welcome to another edition of the Brazil Society newsletter! This week, on Oscar night, we ask whether Brazilian cinema might be entering a golden age, after having suffered so much. 

If you have any questions about this newsletter, or topics you’d like to see covered in future issues, you can reach me at euan@brazilian.report 

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Could “I’m Still Here” Oscar nominations usher in a golden age of Brazilian cinema?

This article was written and published before the 97th Academy Awards ceremony, in which “I’m Still Here” was up for three awards: Best Picture, Best International Feature, and Best Actress for Fernanda Torres. It won Best International Feature.

In 1999, Fernanda Montenegro became the first Brazilian actor to be nominated for an Oscar, with her role in “Central Station” (1998) symbolizing a nation’s artistic resilience. This Sunday evening, her daughter Fernanda Torres is up for Best Actress for her searing performance in “I’m Still Here” (2024), Walter Salles’s breathless Best Picture-nominated dictatorship-era drama.

From the tropical avant-garde of the 1960s to Netflix’s record-breaking “Senna,” Brazil’s film industry has survived dictatorships, economic freefalls and the streaming revolution. Now, as platforms amplify its voices and “I’m Still Here” flirts with Oscar glory, the question looms: Is this a new golden age for Brazilian cinema?

Brazil’s cinematic identity took a while to develop. The 1930s and 1940s saw Hollywood domination in the country’s theaters, and homegrown productions sought to ape these American talkies, to little success. 

The chanchadas from the 1940s and 1950s were more idiosyncratic —  comedic cheap-to-make B-movies that gained popularity. 

But it was the Cinema Novo (New Cinema) movement that really broke the mold, led by auteurs like Glauber Rocha (“Black God, White Devil,” “Entranced Earth”), with jagged black-and-white realism that was seeped in Brazil’s inequalities.

From stage right, enter Embrafilme: the state-owned company set up by the military dictatorship in 1969. While it perpetuated the ideological grip of the regime, Embrafilme also helped structure and promote the movie industry, providing funding for productions and leading to a significant proliferation of theaters nationwide.

Political and economic turmoil in the 1980s sent things in the opposite direction, however, and a decade of decay meant that in 1990, when neoliberal President Fernando Collor de Mello was elected, Embrafilme would be dissolved. Collor also did away with the Culture Ministry and any sort of funding for the arts. The year he was impeached, 1992, just three homegrown films were released in Brazilian cinemas.

The comeback

From the lowest ebb, Brazilian cinema entered what is now known as the “Comeback Phase.” The Itamar Franco government issued incentive programs that lured advertisers and producers into filmmaking. 

Carla Camurati’s “Carlota Joaquina” (1995), a bawdy historical satire about a former queen consort of Brazil, was the first sign that things were really getting somewhere. Partly funded with public money, it garnered great success and proved that homegrown stories and productions could thrive. 

Further validation came with Walter Salles’s “Central Station” (1998), Fernando Meirelles’s “City of God” (2002) and José Padilha’s “Elite Squad” (2007), all modern Brazilian classics in their own regard.

The industry ticked along during the 2010s, with homegrown box office comedy successes such as “Minha Mãe é uma Peça” (“My Mom’s a Character,” 2013, and its 2016 sequel) as well as more incisive festival-targeted pictures like “The Second Mother” (2015) and “Bacurau” (2019).

The streaming revolution

The arrival and widespread popularity of streaming in the 2010s changed the rules of the game, ushering in a new era for Brazilian filmmaking. However, the transition was not seamless. 

Even Brazilian media giant Globo, which produces the country’s most popular and traditional soap operas — and whose film production company Globo Filmes was behind domestic blockbusters like the aforementioned “Minha Mãe é uma Peça” — took a while to properly grasp and engage in the world of streaming, presumably believing that its dominance on Brazil’s television sets would never be threatened by paid-for services such as Netflix.

Globo was forced to change its mind, placing significant focus on its own streaming platform Globoplay, an approach that is now paying off. While market leader Netflix is seeing its grip on streaming loosen, Globo’s offering is only growing and growing. 

The Brazilian filmmaking industry as a whole now appears to have matured in the streaming age, with more and more homegrown productions gaining center stage on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and Max — and gaining international repute as well.

“Senna,” the 2024 drama miniseries based on the life of Brazilian Formula 1 legend Ayrton Senna, was well-received internationally, with its high production values and global cast, filmed in four countries over the space of a year. It shot up Netflix’s charts soon after release, being the world’s most watched non-English language series at the start of December and hitting the top 10 in 58 countries.

Brazilian cinema is Still Here — and then some

Up for three Oscars in tonight’s ceremony (Best Picture, Best International Feature Film, Best Actress for Fernanda Torres), Walter Salles’s “I’m Still Here” embodies this momentum of Brazilian cinema. Throughout the doldrums of the 1980s and early 1990s, the idea of a Brazilian production, about Brazil, with Brazilian actors, getting a Best Picture nomination would be completely unthinkable.

The country’s cinema industry, meanwhile, is enjoying record numbers. The shocking downturn during the pandemic was short-lived, and Brazil’s National Cinema Agency (Ancine) announced in January that there were a total of 3,509 movie theaters in operation nationwide — an all-time record.

Furthermore, the agency reported that cinema audiences for Brazilian films doubled in 2024, a trend that can partly be attributed to the success of “I’m Still Here.”

Whether Brazilian cinema is on the cusp of a golden age may well depend more on politics and algorithms than “I’m Still Here” winning an Oscar. But the industry has shown that, despite all the challenges thrown at it, it knows how to survive. Brazilian cinema is still here, and the rest of the world is taking notice.

Quick catch-up

💰 After Nísia Trindade was sacked as health minister, the percentage of the budget overseen by women cabinet members fell to just 10%. With Gleisi Hoffmann incoming as the new institutional relations secretary, women control just 10 of the 38 cabinet positions in the Lula government.

🎙️ Long-time Formula 1 commentator Sérgio Mauricio was suspended from TV network Band after comments on his X account called transgender Congresswoman Erika Hilton “human fake news.” Despite the account having been promoted by his employers on several occasions over recent years, Mauricio claims that he had nothing to do with the statements, and that the account is false.

🍷 Iconic French winemaker Pétrus is locked in a legal dispute with Brazilian importer Casa Flora over the wine “Putos” — a parody label created by Brazilian comedians that bears a striking resemblance to the highly prestigious Bordeaux brand.