Sofia Coppola’s Venice Golden Lion winner Somewhere, Jerzy Skolimowski’s Venice Jury Prize winning Essential Killing (which also received the Best Actor award for Vincent Gallo); Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix and Best Director winners Xavier Beauvois’ Of Gods and Men and Mathieu Almaric’s Tournée, the Latin America premieres of Andrucha Waddington’s Toronto and Venice selected Lope and Ben Affleck’s The Town; actors Bill Pullman, Charlotte Rampling, Irène Jacob, and Michael Madson, over a dozen premieres of new Brazilian and Latin American films, and an opening night premiere of Arnaldo Jabor’s A Suprema Felicidade (Supreme Happiness) - it could only be Festival do Rio, Brazil’s biggest annual celebration of films from around the world which starts its 12th edition this Thursday, September 23.

Over 14 days more than 300 films from across the world will be screened in and around the city, with every day new films to be discovered, public encounters with the film-makers to be shared, and stars possibly spotted.

Festival do Rio opens on Thursday 23 September with the much anticipated world premiere screening of Brazilian auteur Arnaldo Jabor’s A Suprema Felicidade( Supreme Happiness). Much anticipated because A Suprema Felicidade is Jabor's first feature since Eu Sei Que Vou te Amar (Love Me Forever or Never) which in 1986 won the best actress prize in Cannes for Fernanda Torres. Jabor is no stranger to festivals having competed in Cannes in 1971 and 1986 and having won a Silver Bear at the 1973 Berlin Film Festival for Toda Nudez Sera Castigada (All Nudity Shall be Punished).

The festival’s closing gala screening, on Wednesday 6 October, will be the Latin American premiere of You Me and Them and House of Sand Brazilian director Andrucha Waddington’s glorious Spanish epic, Lope with Spanish stars Alberto Ammann and Pilar López de Ayala flying into Rio for the occasion. The film’s Brazilian supporting stars Sonia Braga and Selton Mello are also expected to be in attendance.

You need only think of all the leading film festivals which have taken place this year, of the world’s most noted directors, and the films which have won prizes, caused debate or simply delivered an audience-pleasing 90 minutes, and you will have an idea of the films to be found having their Latin America premieres in Festival do Rio’s Panorama section. In addition to Coppola, Skolimowski,
Beauvois, and Almaric, Festival do Rio 2010 will present the new Ken Loach -
Route Irish, the new Woody Allen – You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, the master Jean-Lu Godard’s Film Socialisme, Todd Solondz’ Life During Wartime, John Turturro’s Passione, multi-award winning Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s A Woman, A Gun and A Noodle Shop, acclaimed Korean director Im Sang-Soo’s The Housemaid, Michael Winterbottom’s controversy
stirrer The Killer Inside Me and Julia Roberts in her newest film, Eat, Pray, Love.

But let’s not overlook the fact that Festival do Rio is also set up to bring new and undiscovered work from within its own borders.

Premiere Brazil, the only competitive section in the festival - with jury and public awards to be presented on the evening of Tuesday October 5 - and Premiere Latina provide a window to the world for Latin American feature and documentary film makers to showcase their new work.

This year Première Brasil includes nine feature films, eight feature length documentaries and 21 shorts. A further four features and two documentary features will screen hors concours, while a number of other Brazilian films will screen in special Première Brasil sidebars.In total Première Brasil will screen over 60 new Brazilian productions, most of which are having their world premieres in Rio.

Latin America cinema gets double exposure at this year’s festival with the addition to the programming of Focus Argentina, a section dedicated to the work of its neighbouring film makers including Pablo Trapero, Diego Lerman, Marcelo Piñeyro, and Daniel Burman.

Looking further afield, Festival do Rio’s Brazil Seen By Others, Dox, Fronteiras, and Threatened Environment sections focus on films which probe the world looking at local cultures, social issues, or sometimes using the camera to focus on injustices and untold histories needing to be heard, in some cases told as dramatisations, other times as hard etched documentaries, covering landscapes as far apart as South Asia’s Himalayas to Brazil’s favelas, where the common link is humanity’s current condition.

Expectativa shows the work of the rising new stars of world cinema with films selected from literally across the world: Europe, Asia, North America, Southern Africa, and the Middle East.

For those late night owls into a diet of popcorn and pulp, Festival do Rio’s Midnight section offers such treats as a psycho-killer pneumatic tyre in Quentin Dupieux’s Rubber, Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis’ revenge rampage Machete or the chance to chill and hang out with The Rolling Stones in the smoke-filled hazy days of 1972 in the South of France as the band record what is considered their masterpiece album, Exile on Main Street in the musical documentary Stones in Exile.

The festival’s Gay section unspools trans-world perspectives on gay life: from
Hong Kong Chinese director Scud’s high-design Berlin Film Festival selected Amphetamine, to Argentine director Marco Berger’s more naturalistic Plan B. Worth noting: placed elsewhere in the festival – the Panorama section - is one of the freshest and funniest gay-themed films of a long time, US director Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are Alright, with Annette Benning and Julianne Moore as the most convincing, and endearing screen lesbian couple we’ve seen in years, dealing with the chaos that follows when their artificially conceived children discover their birth father.

The festival is also honouring three leading directors with special focuses and career retrospectives. The directors in question are France's Bruno Dumont, Israel's Amos Gitai, and Poland's Jerry Skolimowski all of whom will be in Rio
to acknowledge the tributes. Septuagenarian Skolimoski’s latest film Essential Killing was recognised at this month’s Venice Film Festival with the festival jury’s Special Jury Prize.
Festival do Rio, which first took place in 1999 as a result of the merger of Brazil’s two largest film events, Rio Cine Festival (founded in 1984) and Mostra Banco Nacional do Cinema (founded in 1988), is Brazil and South America's largest film festival and industry event. In 2009 over 300,000 tickets were sold to the Brazilian public and overseas visitors.
RioMarket: Industry Focus
While a large part of the festival is targeted towards the resident Brazilian public, Festival do Rio also has a very strong industry section. RioMarket offers seminars, Master Classes, one-to-one scheduled meetings, and networking events covering film, home entertainment and television.
RioMarket is taking place from 24 September through 5 October with the majority of the events centred on the Centro Cultural da Ação da Cidadania in downtown Rio.
Further details of the festival programming and RioMarket events can be found at the website: www.festivaldorio.com.br / http://www.riomarket.com.br
Festival do Rio Press Office:

Press Office:

Pavilhão do Festival do Rio
Centro Cultural de Ação e Cidadania
Avenida Barão de Teffé, 75 - Saúde

International Press:
PR Contact
Ronaldo Mourão Tel: (21) 93 61 11 95
Phil Symes Tel: (21) 93 61 11 97
Email: festival@theprcontact.com



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