Brazil, Galicia to co-host meeting

The meeting takes place in Santiago de Compostela, the capital of Spanish region Galicia. Hosts are Ancine National Cinema Agency and the Galician Audiovisual Consortium.

The meeting will coincide with a Brazilian Cinema panorama and a music event, said Andre Sturm, director general of Brazilian film export board Cinema do Brasil, which co-organized the meet for Ancine.

In November, Ancine and Spain's ICAA Film Institute will hold another Co-Producers Meeting in Madrid.

Cinema do Brasil and German Film are in talks to organize similar co-production meets, Sturm said at Cannes.

Once closely focused on its own market, Brazilian producers are now pushing abroad. The Co-Production Meetings can be accompanied by hard cash. Ancine and the Galician Consortium will shortly announce the two winners of $240,000 per pic to two Brazilian-Galician co-productions this year.

Cinema do Brasil covers most of producers' costs to attend festivals such as Cannes, and provides a communal stand.

"Attending co-production meetings, producers have become far interested in and organized about tapping into the international market," said Sturm.

And Brazil needs co-production. Introduced in December 2006, new Funcine regs significantly improved Brazilian tax incentives for film funding, offering 100% breaks.

At Cannes, Vereda Films, Investimage and the Latin American Film Co. have all announced the launch of new tax-driven film funds in Brazil. Collectively, they look to raise nearly $50 million.

Brazil's domestic market has sagged over the last two years.

"The films financed need to recoup, so producers are looking increasingly to the international market," Sturm said.