Brazil film industry is entering its global co-production era

The post-Oscar pivot

Remember 2025? It was a massive year for Brazilian cinema. Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here snatched the country’s first-ever Oscar for Best International Film, and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent crushed it at Cannes and landed five Oscar nominations. It’s giving main character energy, right? But now that the dust has settled, the industry is pivoting to a new strategy: co-productions.

Going global

While Brazil didn’t land those big-name festival competition slots in 2026, the country is lowkey taking over the circuit through some wild international partnerships. We’re talking about collabs with places as diverse as Nepal and Finland on projects like Elephants in the Fog and Narciso.

Festival director Ilda Santiago notes that the game has changed. “Now, you can barely find a single film with less than four countries involved in its making,” she says. It’s all about pooling funds and crews to make sure these stories actually travel.

Why it works (and where it struggles)

Producer Cibele Amaral explains that the surge in co-productions is fueled by public policy support through the Audiovisual Sector Fund (ASF). It’s a major economic driver, too—the industry creates over 600,000 jobs, which honestly ate the automotive industry’s numbers by 58%.

However, the vibes are a bit off regarding long-term planning. Amaral points out that these public incentives are often inconsistent—the last open call for co-productions was back in 2023. Producer Patrick de Jongh agrees, noting that while official co-production requests jumped 150% from 2023 to 2025, the country still lacks the institutional stability to stay competitive long-term.

Why it matters

Brazil is proving it’s not just an “exotic destination” for filming; it’s a powerhouse for dense, high-quality narratives with top-tier crews. If they can nail down consistent funding policies, the global impact of Brazilian cinema is only going to grow.