The São Paulo International Film Festival ( pt, Mostra Internacional de Cinema de São Paulo), also known internationally as Mostra, is an annual

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

held in the city of

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. A non-profit event, the festival is organized by ABMIC (Associação Brasileira Mostra Internacional de Cinema). The state and city of São Paulo have established October as the festival's official month. The 46th edition of the festival was held from 20 October to 2 November 2022. 223 films from 60 different countries, categorized in three segments: International Perspective, New Directors Competition, and Mostra Brasil will be presented in the festival. '' Aftersun'' by Charlotte Wells won the Jury Prize for best film in the festival.

History

The festival was created in 1977 when film critic Leon Cakoff decided to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the

São Paulo Museum of Art The São Paulo Museum of Art ( pt, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, or ') is an art museum located on Paulista Avenue in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It is well known for its headquarters, a 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by Lina Bo ...

(MASP). The head of the museum's film department, Cakoff had already organized successful screenings of rare foreign films during the 1970s. These pre-festival screenings had a large audience turnout, including films that came without Portuguese subtitles and sometimes with no translation at all, proving the strength of the city's cultural demand. The 1st São Paulo International Film Festival included 16 feature films and 7 shorts, representing 17 countries in total. Consisting of 40 screenings at the MASP's Grand Auditorium, the first edition inaugurated the Audience Prize, with members of the audience voting for the best picture, a ritual that has been followed ever since. The winner of the first Audience Prize was

Hector Babenco In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...

's ''Lucio Flavio'' (1977), a Brazilian production. The ''Jornal do Brasil'' news publication noted that the festival was the only place in the country where people had the right to vote.

Censorship

Brazil was under military dictatorship at the time, causing a lot of difficulties with the censors during the festival's first seven years while it was still held at the MASP. Films often had to be screened to a censorship committee before being shown to the public and transportation difficulties sometimes forced the prints to arrive in Brazil inside diplomatic luggage with the aid of embassies and consulates. After leaving the museum in 1984, the festival stood up to the censors and began a legal battle for the right to screen the films directly to the public, with no prior censorship interference. The 8th edition of the festival was marked by the strongest clash against the government. The festival won the appeal in 1984, the last year of the dictatorship, and it began seemingly free from the censors. However, the event was suspended in the middle of the first week after a screening of Wim Wenders' '' The State of Things'' (1982). The interruption, which received large international coverage, lasted for four days, enough time for the Ministry of Justice's censorship board to watch all of the films. The festival has been free of government censorship since 1985 thanks to a ministerial order by request of the organizers of the event. The decision extended itself throughout the entire nation, including every other festival that was previously subjected to censorship. The court victory caused the 9th edition of the festival, which took place from October 15 to 31 in 1985, to screen all of the films without any government interference.

Impact

In its 39-year-history, the festival grew from being held exclusively inside the MASP museum to a large-scale event throughout the city of São Paulo. Today, Mostra screens more than 300 films a year. It has received recognition as the main gateway in Brazil to world cinema. Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles has claimed that Brazilian audiences would only be familiar with American and some European productions if it weren't for the festival's efforts. Filmmaker Laís Bodanzky noted the importance of the festival in influencing an entire generation of Brazilian filmmakers who faithfully attended the event in the 80s and 90s, all of them baptizing themselves as "children of the Mostra." The festival has had the presence of multiple Brazilian filmmakers as guests. Notable international guests since 1977 include Dennis Hopper,

Pedro Almodóvar Pedro Almodóvar Caballero (; (often known simply as Almodóvar) born 25 September 1949) is a Spanish filmmaker. His films are marked by melodrama, irreverent humour, bold colour, glossy décor, quotations from popular culture, and complex narra ...

Park Chan-wook Park Chan-wook ( ; born 23 August 1963) is a South Korean film director, screenwriter, producer, and former film critic. He is considered as one of the most prominent filmmakers of South Korean cinema as well as world cinema in 21st century. ...

, Miguel Gomes,

Victoria Abril Victoria Mérida Rojas (born 4 July 1959), better known as Victoria Abril, is a Spanish film actress and singer based in France. She is possibly best known to international audiences for her performance in the film ''Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!'' by ...

Jane Birkin Jane Mallory Birkin, OBE (born 14 December 1946) is an English-French singer and actress. She attained international fame and notability for her decade-long musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. She also had a prolific career ...

, Guy Maddin,

Abbas Kiarostami Abbas Kiarostami ( fa, عباس کیارستمی ; 22 June 1940 – 4 July 2016) was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer, and film producer. An active filmmaker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in the production of ...

Claudia Cardinale Claude Joséphine Rose "Claudia" Cardinale (; born 15 April 1938) is an Italian actress. She has starred in some of the most iconic European films of the 1960s and 1970s, acting in Italian, French, and English. Born and raised in La Goulette, a ...

Amos Gitai Amos Gitai ( he, עמוס גיתאי; born 11 October 1950) is an Israeli filmmaker, who was trained as an architect. Gitai's work was presented in several major retrospectives in Pompidou Center in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and ...

Les Blank Les Blank (November 27, 1935 – April 7, 2013) was an American documentary filmmaker best known for his portraits of American traditional musicians. Life and career Leslie Harrod Blank Jr. was born November 27, 1935 in Tampa, Florida. He atten ...

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...

Maria de Medeiros Maria Esteves de Medeiros Victorino de Almeida, DamSE (born 19 August 1965), known professionally as Maria de Medeiros (), is a Portuguese actress, director, and singer who has been involved in both European and American film productions. Ear ...

, Wim Wenders,

Alan Parker Sir Alan William Parker (14 February 1944 – 31 July 2020) was an English filmmaker. His early career, beginning in his late teens, was spent as a copywriter and director of television advertisements. After about ten years of filming adverts ...

, Manoel de Oliveira, Christian Berger, Kiju Yoshida, Atom Egoyan,

Danis Tanovic Danis may refer to: * ''Danis'' (butterfly), a genus of butterfly in the family Lycaenidae * Danis Goulet (born 1977), Canadian Cree-Métis film director and screenwriter * Yann Danis (born 1981), Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender * Gy ...

, Satyajit Ray, Eizo Sugawa,

Theo Angelopoulos Theodoros "Theo" Angelopoulos (; ; 27 April 1935 – 24 January 2012) was a Greek filmmaker, screenwriter and film producer. He dominated the Greek art film industry from 1975 on, and Angelopoulos was one of the most influential and widely re ...

Marisa Paredes María Luisa Paredes Bartolomé (born 3 April 1946), known professionally as Marisa Paredes, is a Spanish actress. Biography Paredes began acting in 1960 film, '' 091 Policia al Habla'' (''091, Police Speaking!'') She became a teen idol across ...

Rossy de Palma Rosa Elena García Echave (born 16 September 1964), known professionally as Rossy de Palma, is a Spanish actress and model. She is well known for her roles in films by Pedro Almodóvar such as ''Law of Desire'', ''Women on the Verge of a Nervou ...

Geraldine Chaplin Geraldine Leigh Chaplin (born July 31, 1944) is an American actress. She is the daughter of Charlie Chaplin, the first of eight children with his fourth wife, Oona O'Neill. After beginnings in dance and modeling, she turned her attention to act ...

and

Jonas Mekas Jonas Mekas (; December 24, 1922 – January 23, 2019) was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet, and artist who has been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema". Mekas' work has been exhibited in museums and at festivals worldwi ...

The festival produced the short film ''Welcome Back, Abbas'' in 1999. Directed by festival directors Leon Cakoff and Renata de Almeida, the film followed filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami during one of his visits to the city of São Paulo. Mostra has also produced anthology films, notably ''Welcome to São Paulo'' (2004) and ''Invisible World'' (2011), featuring collective short films not only by Leon and Renata, but also by directors from around the world who were invited to film in city. The list of international filmmakers (including Brazilian directors) consisted of Wolfgang Becker,

, Hanna Elias,

, Mika Kaurismäki,

Jim McBride Jim or JIM may refer to: * Jim (given name), a given name * Jim, a diminutive form of the given name James * Jim, a short form of the given name Jimmy * OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism * ''Jim'' (comics), a series by Jim Woodring * ''Jim' ...

Phillip Noyce Phillip Noyce (born 29 April 1950) is an Australian filmmaker. Since 1977, he has directed over 19 feature films in various genres, including historical drama ('' Newsfront'', '' Rabbit-Proof Fence'', '' The Quiet American''); thrillers (''Dead ...

, Ming-liang Tsai, Andrea Vecchiato,

Caetano Veloso Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso (; born 7 August 1942) is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo, which encomp ...

Yoshishige Yoshida , also known as Kijū Yoshida, was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Life and career Graduating from the University of Tokyo, where he studied French literature, Yoshida entered the Shōchiku studio in 1955 and worked as an assistant ...

, Gian Vittorio Baldi, Marcho Bechis, Laís Bodanzky, Beto Brant, Manoel de Oliveira, Atom Egoyan, Guy Maddin, Jerzy Stuhr, and Wim Wenders. Leon Cakoff (the founder, organizer, and director of the event) died in 2011, shortly before the 35th edition. His widow Renata de Almeida, who produced the festival with him, became Mostra's director. The 38th edition of the São Paulo International Film Festival in 2014 featured retrospectives dedicated to Spanish filmmaker

and the French distribution company MK2 founded by Marin Karmitz. The overall selection included over 330 titles.

References

* Cakoff, Leon (2006). "Cinema Sem Fim: A História da Mostra - 30 Anos." ''Imprensa Oficial''. * "Especial: A Mostra". (2011) Directed by: Hélio Goldsztejn. TV Cultura

External links

*
São Paulo International Film Festival
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

São Paulo International Film Festival
at Film Festival World
São Paulo International Short Film Festival
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sao Paulo International Film Festival 1977 establishments in Brazil Film festivals in Brazil Film festivals established in 1977 Tourist attractions in São Paulo Festivals in São Paulo