Coinciding with a far larger presence – in pics, producers and partying – at 2012’s San Sebastian, film export promotion org Cinema de Brasil unveiled Thursday evening two
new export initiatives: a $40,000 Sales Agents Award and an entertaining Distributors
World Cup.

The Sales Agent Award will go to a maximum five sales agents who successful securing an official selection berth for a Brazilian movie at any of five major events: Berlin, Cannes, Venice, San Sebastian and Sundance.

“Being selected in the main sections at these festivals can really make a difference
for a film and a filmmaker’s career,” Cinema do Brasil chair André Sturm said at San Sebastian.

Significantly, sales agents can spend their part of the $40,000 on general festival expenses, not just the direct promotion of Brazilian films.

In a second move, CDB’s Distributors’ World Cup institutes a points system rewarding a distributor if he buys a Brazilian film, again if he opens it theatrically, again if it’s a recent movie. The two distributors with most points in 2012 will be invited to 2013’s Rio de Janeiro Carnival, 2013’s winners to at least one match at Brazil’s 2014 soccer World Cup.

“The idea is to energize international distributors who work with Brazilian movies, to offer them something special,” Sturm said.

In a further initiative, this Sunday evening, CDB will invite some 40 sales agents, producers, fest execs and distributors from France and over Europe to a concert by Jorge Ben Jor in Paris. It will also present its new export initiatives.

The CDB World Cup and Sales Agent Award joins its up-and-running Distribution Support prints and advertising fund, a first for Latin America, which CDB renewed for the fourth year running in February.

The 2012 fund, which offers a total $250,000, grants foreign distributors up to $25,000 towards P & A on a new Brazilian release. (Support for releases in some smaller territories can be less.)

The scheme involves distributors’ committing to a minimum theatrical run of at least five cities and four weeks at one theater. Distributors’ P & A must at least match Distribution Support funding. Over 30 films and distributors have received grants since the initiative
launched in 2009. The scheme will continue in 2013.

Films supported include Elite Squad 2, distributed in Poland by Gremi Film Production, for instance; The Famous and the Dead, which Alambique put out in Portugal; and Estomago, which Bodega Films opened in France.

A sales agent on a Brazilian film now has two instruments, Sturm concluded.

“They can put a film in a festival or, in order to sell the movie, they can say: ‘Apply to Cinema do Brasil’s Distribution Support scheme to aid the film’s release. We’re trying to close the circle.”

J.H.