running in 10 different cities annually, this year's brazilian film festival seamlessly demonstrates through its exhibition of a diverse and rich range of brazilian produced titles, how the boom in brazil's bursting economy over the last decade has been paralleled by an energetic renaissance in its film industry.

in 1991 embrafilme (empresa brasileira de filmes, now called agęncia nacional do cinema - ancine) and concice (conselho nacional de cinema), the main public bodies supporting national film production and distribution in brazil, were cut by severe economic reforms of then president fernando collor de mello resulting in a fall of brazilian film production from 100 films a year at its peak in the 70s and 80s to zero in 1991.

however, as the late 1990s and early 2000s saw the country's economy gradually stabilizing and then rapidly accelerating, in parallel the film industry began to slowly recover and then burst into global success with the work of acclaimed directors such as walter salles (central do brasil, 1998), fernando meirelles (cidade de deus, 2002), and josé padilha (onibus 174, 2002).