Rio film festival kicks off
The Rio de Janeiro international film festival 2007 opened yesterday, marking its ninth year in existence.
Controversial Brazilian film, Elite Troup, kicked off the festival, which has 300 films in 30 theatres and is the biggest of its kind in Latin America.
Films from 24 countries including the US, Denmark and Israel will be screened over the week, but there will be a particular emphasis at this year’s event on Chinese cinema, with 12 Chinese productions, both contemporary and classic, in the line-up.
Ilad Santiago, programming director for the event, which selects a different country each year as a focus for the festival, spoke out about this year’s choice.
"We have been working on this China focus for the past three years. China is a very important country for Brazil in terms of international film co-production," he told Chinese news agency, Xinhua.
The festival coincides with news this month that one of Brazil’s biggest film studios, Conspiracao Filmes, has opened head offices in Germany as part of a move to raise the country’s growing international profile in Europe.
Events like this help raise global awareness of Brazil’s growing economy and the investment opportunities in Latin America’s biggest economy.
