S?o Paulo State Ramps Up Film, TV Aid, Preps New On-Site Market
Brazil’s State of S?o Paulo, a burgeoning production epicenter home to projects like Netflix’s “Senna,” has announced its ambitious Audiovisual Industry Development Plan. Speaking with Variety ahead of a panel at the Berlin Festival’s European Film Market, Secretary of Culture, Economy, and Creative Industries of Brazil’s State of S?o Paulo Marília Marton reinforced the government’s commitment to “fostering continuous, sustainable initiatives” to position the state as a hub for “high-quality content production on an international level.”
The development plan — which includes strategic investments in various areas, such as governance, infrastructure, training, funding, and international promotion — comes less than two years after Brazil’s successful Paulo Gustavo Law saw a multi-million boost in S?o Paulo’s audiovisual production.
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A post-pandemic recovery initiative named after lauded comic and actor Paulo Gustavo, who tragically died of complications of COVID-19 in 2021, the Paulo Gustavo Law released R$2.8 billion ($571 million) for Brazil’s audiovisual sectors in May of 2023. The cash pot was delivered to the country’s 27 states and 5,000 cities to use in production and distribution incentives or the creation of a local knowledge economy.
“The Paulo Gustavo Law saw a one-time cash injection into our state’s audiovisual production and we took that opportunity to gather several members of the industry and understand what we should do with that money and what was the importance of the sector not only from a cultural point of view but also as a way to propel S?o Paulo’s image to the international stage,” said Marton of the first seeds for the plan.
“We gathered producers, filmmakers, distributors, rights owners, and exhibitors and tried our best to understand what were the greatest consequences of a global pandemic to the industry,” she continued. “From those conversations, we understood that if we didn’t implement systemic, ongoing policies, we would continue to have peaks and throughs in the industry.”
Marton and her team funded 17 feature films with the money from the Paulo Gustavo Law, giving each a pot of R$6 million, approximately €1.2 million at the time. “This may not be eye-watering money but it was enough to finance good quality productions and we are starting to see the results of that investment now.”
Some of the projects that benefited from the law include a new film by renowned “Rio” and “Ferdinand” director Carlos Saldanha titled “100 Days” and Andre Sturm’s historical thriller “A Conspira??o Condor.” Both projects are currently in post-production and are expected to be completed still this year.
Although the Paulo Gustavo Law was a unique investment, the state can now continuously allocate funds to the audiovisual sector through a combination of funds available through the Aldir Blanc Law coupled with the state’s own incentive law for the culture sector, PROAC, totaling R$400 million a year — approximately €66.5 million. This investment, a key part of the state’s Audiovisual Industry Development Plan, encompasses the whole cultural sector — from craft workers to dance and theatre — with the largest financial allocation destined to audiovisual production, R$60 million per year, approximately €10 million.
Instead of getting R$6 million per project, like with the Paulo Gustavo Law, feature films will now be granted a reduced rate of R$4 million. The financing has also become more targeted and comes with an array of new support initiatives such as integrated programs for professionals in partnership with educational institutions and decentralization efforts to encompass the whole state instead of just the city of S?o Paulo. Out of the 13 features supported in the first year of the new funding scheme, three need to be co-productions with companies based outside of the city of S?o Paulo, and four need to be international co-productions.
Another major pillar of S?o Paulo’s Audiovisual Industry Development Plan is the inaugural edition of the Paulo Gustavo Showcase (Mostra Paulo Gustavo), a festival slash film marketplace shaped after Mipcom and tapping into the state’s desire to become a leading audiovisual hub in South America — especially given how other major South American capitals like Buenos Aires are currently struggling with federal government budget cuts.
The Paulo Gustavo Showcase, funded with the final remainder of the Paulo Gustavo Law pot, will be held in the city of S?o Paulo in July — with dates to be confirmed but set to take place within the first two weeks of the month. The event will feature screenings, workshops, masterclasses, and a creative economy fair. Additionally, a catalog will be developed, compiling all productions supported by the Paulo Gustavo Law in S?o Paulo.
“We heard that Mipcom is looking for a new place and we want to show that S?o Paulo would be a great option,” said Marton of the drive for organizing the event. “We are hungry to show that our state can become an audiovisual capital in the continent,” she adds, citing an example in CCXP, originally called Comic Con Experience, which has now “considerably surpassed” the number of attendees of the original event in San Diego.
The new showcase won’t be the only new event to take place in S?o Paulo this year, with the state having recently announced the first edition of the S?o Paulo Beyond Business (SP2B), a conference envisioned by the organizers of Rio de Janeiro’s burgeoning Rio2C and inspired by Austin’s long-running South by Southwest (SXSW). The inaugural SP2B will run for eight days in August at Parque do Ibirapuera, an iconic S?o Paulo location.
“We began traveling to film festivals in 2022, having attended the EFM for the first time in 2023,” added Marton of the importance of attending major market events to talk to potential partners about the opportunities available in S?o Paulo. “Now, two years later, we are thrilled to be back at the festival with such an ambitious plan and certain that we will be back even stronger next year, as we hope films funded by the Paulo Gustavo Law will begin popping up in the international circuit. The future looks bright.”
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