Geovana Pagel
São Paulo – Brazilian cinema and television productions may elevate their participation in the Brazilian export basket. Selling US$ 2.5 million in films and US$ 6 million in television programs to other countries is another target of the cooperation agreement to be signed today (10) by the Ministries of Culture and Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, the Brazilian Export Promotion Agency (Apex) and the private sector.
Both sectors will receive over US$ 4.6 million for training, research and market prospecting and trade promotion on the foreign market, in a period of two years.
The intention is that by the end of the project, Brazilian production companies have reach 120 hours of co-production turned to exports, with an average price of US$ 50,000/hour. The government project is turned to independent production companies, those that do not belong to television channels.
Although the annual film sales target has been fixed at US$ 2.5 million, the forecast is for growth of up to US$ 10 million by the end of the decade. Last year, film exports generated US$ 1.8 million for Brazil.
Apex president Juan Quirós stated that the intention of the partnership is to create a strong brand for the sector on foreign trade and to expand the number of Brazilian companies that export. "Exports of Brazilian audio-visual production play an important part in international publicity of the country. One of the results of this exhibition is buyer interest in Brazilian products," he explained.
Figures collected by the Brazilian Association of Independent Television Producers (ABPI-TV) and Brazilian Cinema Promotion (BCP) show that Brazilian television independent production has market potential in the United States, Canada, France, England, Germany, Russia, Japan, Italy and Asia. National cinema, in turn, will focus on Germany, Canada, Colombia, Spain, the United States, France, Holland, Italy and Mexico.
Investment
In the first two years, investment will total around US$ 1.8 million in promotion of independent Brazilian TV production, through Brazilian TV Producers, a program for promotion of the sector. The total will be made available through the Apex, ABPI-TV, the Ministry of Culture Audio-Visual Secretariat and the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae).
Brazilian cinema will receive around US$ 2.9 million, invested by the Apex and Brazilian Cinema Promotion (BCP), a non-profit organization established in 2001 to promote Brazilian cinema on the international market and that represents over 60% of independent film production.
According to BCP president Tarcisio Vidigal, the agreement represents continuation of a partnership that already existed. According to him, this is the fourth agreement that BCP, which is going to invest US$ 1.7 million of the total made available in the program, signs with Apex.
"The new agreement (to be signed today) forecasts participation in 34 events up to 2006," explained Vidigal. Up to the end of 2004, BCP, which currently has 80 associated producers and promotes Brazilian cinema at international fairs and festivals like Cannes, in France, and Berlin, in Germany, expects to export around 60 national films.
"Today the main markets for national cinema are the countries in Latin America and Europe, but we are also interested in exporting around the rest of the world," he said.
Brazilian cinema abroad
In the last three years, the country has exhibited 184 films in 249 festivals and international markets in 110 countries. Sales contracts for exhibition rights totalled 120.
To have an idea of the sector growth, in 2001, Brazil participated in 26 festivals and was present in 25 countries. In 2003, there was participation in 122 festivals, and films were exhibited in 45 countries.
The number of contracts for exhibition has risen from 58 to 190 and, if in 2001 they generated revenues of US$ 600,000, last year this total rose to US$ 1.8 million.
The figures are partial and only reflect the result of the International Program of Brazilian Cinema, a partnership between BCP, a production company Grupo Novo de Cinema e TV, Apex and the National Cinema Agency (Ancine) as Brazil does not yet have research regarding total revenues generated by the cinema.
