Brazil’s Production Sector Booms, Following Crisis
Marcelo Cajueiro In a breath-taking plot twist, the health of Brazil’s indie production sector of films and TV shows has turned from the worst crisis in 30 years to an unprecedented boom.The growth is fuelled by commissions from streaming platforms such as Netflix, local Globoplay, Amazon Prime Video and HBO Max, and most recently the “resurrection” of federal incentive body Fundo Setorial do Audiovisual (FSA).“We never produced so much in the history of Brazil,” helmer Paulo Sergio Almeida, head of film marketing and research firm Filme B, told Variety.The scenario today is radically different from the one in 2019, when the National Cinema Agency (Ancine) virtually paralyzed funding for the FSA, by far the main local incentive. The Federal Accounts Tribunal (TCU) dictated the halt, due to alleged inadequacies in Ancine’s system of audit expenses of productions subsidized with FSA coin.