Projeto Paradiso, Ventana Sur, BR Lab Partner as Nicho 54 Brings Brazilian Black Women Producers to Cannes
Projeto Paradiso, operated by the Olga Rabinovich Institute, has renewed its partnership with Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur, backed by Cannes Festival and Film Market and Argentina’s INCAA film-TV agency.
The move is one of several unveiled at Cannes Marché du Film, as go-ahead orgs in Brazil continue to attempt to stem the ravages of three years of President Jair Bolsonaro’s state incentive slow down as well as map out institutional backing for an industry in what is hoped to be a post-Bolsonaro age after October’s general elections. Some of the new initiatives:
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Projeto Paradiso Broadens Its Alliance With Ventana Sur
The Projeto Paradiso-Ventana Sur alliance cuts two ways. For the second year running, the Brazilian philanthropic org will hand out a Paradiso WIP Award, worth $10,000 in last-money-in to the best Brazilian fiction project in post-production at Ventana Sur, Latin America’s biggest film-TV event.
Launched in 2021, the Award catches Brazilian cinema as some federal funding lines have begun to be renewed, starting last December, but the Bolsonaro government’s incentive slow-down, compounded by pandemic, has decimated its film industry.
The Award also comes, however, as an exciting new generation filmmakers, is galvanising film production in Brazil.
Last year’s prize was won by Gabriel Martin’s first solo feature “Mars One,” produced by Filmes de Plástico, which went on to be selected for January’s Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Competition.
Cannes saw Paris-based MDP Premium announce further sales on Iuli Gerbase’s 2021 Sundance hit “The Pink Cloud,” a banner title from Brazil’s newest generation of women filmmakers which has now sold over half the world. Globo Filmes also confirmed at Cannes that it had boarded as a co-producer both “Cidade; Campo,” from Juliana Rojas (“Good Manners”) and “The Blue Flamingo,” from Beatriz Seigner (“Los Silencios”).
Also at Cannes, Projeto Paradiso announced it is swelling the Brazilian participation in Ventana Sur this year by bringing Paradiso Talents – professionals supported by the institution – to the Buenos Aires market. The intention is to create a hub for these filmmakers to meet international players, it said.
BrLab Moves Closer to Ventana Sur
Meanwhile, BrLab, Brazil’s foremost film training-forum platform for national and Latin American titles is moving closer to Ventana Sur. Its main workshop – which has featured films such as Manuel Nieto’s Directors’ Fortnight title “The Employer and the Employee,” Lucia’s Garibaldi’s “The Sharks,” Marcelo Martinessi’s Berlin winner “The Heiresses” and Fernando Coimbra’s standout debut “A Wolf at the Door” – has traditionally taken place in October.
This year round, however, it will take place over Nov. 21-27, the week before Ventana Sur. “The events are different, BrLab much more a training and meeting event than a market, but they have a similar sense of integration,” Rafael Sampaio, BR Lab director, told Variety.
“Ventana Sur is a very important hub for the Latin American cinema and after the pandemic we understood that it would be important to optimize trips and traveling to make much easier for the people who want to come to BrLab to combine this with their trip to Buenos Aires,” he added.
BR Lab and Ventana Sur are working on “some programming together,” said Sampaio. “The intention is to co-operate more and establish more points of connections between Brazil and Argentina and to bring more professionals in South America.”
Ventana Sur, Projeto Paradiso
Nicho 54 Brings a Delegation of Black Women Brazilian Producers to Cannes
Sponsored by Open Society Foundations, Instituto Ibirapitanga, and Instituto Goethe/Hilfsfonds and with institutional support from Projeto Paradiso, the Nicho Executiva program brought a delegation of seven Black Brazilian women producers to Cannes Marché du Film via its Nicho 54 institute, led by Nicho 54 co-founder Fernanda Lomba and award-winning producer Joelma Gonzaga (“Edna”), who serves as program co-ordinator.
Nicho Executiva participants take in Rio de Janeiro’s Emanuela Barboza and Yolanda Barroso, Tocantins’ Cláudia Roberta and Daiane Rosário and Flávia Santana, both based in Bahia.
Launched in February, the program is focused on the role of executive production for the film industry at large. “Through theoretical and practical learning, the program devises a unique methodology deploying resources, knowledge and strategies crafted exclusively to the Black community in Brazil,” Nicho 54 said in a statement. “Nicho Executiva establishes markers with the goal to both contribute to the learning journey of the participants and to strengthen leadership skills for Black women,” it added.
“Attending industry events of such level is extremely important for the development of the careers of the producers from Nicho Executiva,” argued Lomba, the program curator. “It is an opportunity to immerse the delegation in a creative and active environment that facilitates connecting players from multiple countries. It helps expand the participants’ network, as well as forging professional relationships.”
“Increasing the number of Black women as leaders in creative and executive processes within the industry is no small accomplishment. It entails reshaping a structure that has rendered invisible a diverse range of voices in storytelling and image-creation,” Gonzaga added.
Variety will report back on participants’ projects later in the year.
Credit: Loic Thebaud
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