Largest Annual Showcase Of Brazilian Cinema In The U.S. Comes To Miami
August 19-27

Produced by Inffinito Foundation, the Brazilian Film Festival of Miami to feature 40 films set in Brazil, Cuba and Uruguay during 9 days at Colony Theatre and Miami Beach Cinematheque

Festival to host U.S. Premieres of award-winning con artist caper VIPs, with Brazil’s No. 1 box-office star, Wagner Moura, and produced by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Fernando Meirelles, and Brazilian box-office hits Trap.com (Cilada.com) and Take It Easy (Muita Calma Nessa Hora), both starring actor/screenwriter Bruno Mazzeo

Career Tribute to honor Cinema Novo pioneer and legendary auteur Arnaldo Jabor and screen his first film in 25 years, The Supreme Happiness; retrospective to feature classic performances by Fernanda Montenegro, Sonia Braga, Fernanda Torres, Marco Nanini and Paulo César Pereio

Inffinito Foundation of Miami, the premier independent promoter of Brazilian cinema and cultural arts around the world, today announced the official lineup of features, documentaries and short films scheduled to commemorate the 15th Annual Brazilian Film Festival of Miami, the largest annual showcase of independent Portuguese-language films from Brazil presented in the United States. Premieres and screenings of 25 award-winning features and documentaries and 15 shorts will be held August 19-27. Entries will be eligible to compete for the Festival’s Crystal Lens Awards for Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay, among other juried categories. The Festival is the only exhibition in the U.S. that receives perennial support from Brazil’s top public and private film production and promotion entities, including oil giant PETROBRAS, the Brazilian Ministry of Culture’s Audiovisual Secretariat and ANCINE (Agência Nacional do Cinema).

“To turn 15, it has a very special meaning in Brazil,” explains Brazilian Film Festival co-founder Viviane Spinelli. “During that time, the Festival has come of age, just like the Brazilian film industry is coming of age, and our films, our directors and our stars are being embraced by audiences around the world.”

During the past 15 years, the biggest names in Brazilian cinema have attended the Festival, including director Fernando Meirelles (City of God), actor Rodrigo Santoro (300, Carandiru) actor Selton Mello (To the Left of the Father, My Name Isn’t Johnny), actress Andrea Beltrão (Time of Fear), actress Glória Pires (Lula, the Son of Brazil), actor José Wilker (Elvis & Madona), actress Lília Cabral (In Therapy) and directors Bruno Barreto (Four Days in September) and Fabio Barreto (Lula, Son of Brazil).

The 2011 Festival will feature performances and films by actor Wagner Moura, producer Fernando Meirelles and director Toniko Melo (VIPs); singer/musician Caetano Veloso (A Night in ’67) and samba queen Elza Soares (Elza); actor/screenwriter Bruno Mazzeo (Trap.com, Take It Easy); actor Marco Nanini and actress Maria Luisa Mendonça (The Supreme Happiness); actor Bruno Garcia (Head Over Heels); actor André Ramiro (Speechless); and actor Marcelo Serrado (Malu on Bicycle), among others.

Festival screenings will be held at two venues: the Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Road, and the region’s newest boutique art-house theater, the Miami Beach Cinematheque, 1130 Washington Ave., both located in Miami Beach. Tickets are now on sale through Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.com), the Colony Theatre box office and the Miami Beach Cinematheque box office (www.mbcinema.com or www.miamibeachfilmsociety.com). Tickets at the Colony Theatre are: $10 for general admission and $5 for students, seniors and Miami Beach Film Society members. Tickets at the Miami Beach Cinematheque are: $10 for general admission, $8 for Miami Beach Film Society members and $8 for students and seniors.

The complete schedule of screenings, special events (after-parties at Delano and Mondrian South Beach), ticket prices, scheduled VIP appearances, as well as regular news updates before and during the Festival, will be available online at the Festival’s website: www.brazilianfilmfestival.com/miami.

Inffinito Foundation’s Brazilian Film Festival is the leading international circuit for new films, filmmakers and talent emerging from the South American country, a member of the so-called “BRIC” nations (along with Russia, India and China), which is quickly gaining prominence in Hollywood and around the world as one of the fastest-growing centers for film production, distribution and cinematic consumerism. Launched in Miami in 1996, the Festival was created to cater to South Florida’s booming Brazilian population in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach corridor—now one of the largest living outside Brazil and the largest in any U.S. metropolitan area, at 250,000-plus and counting. Since then, the Festival has become a gateway for Brazilian cinema coming into the U.S. and a marketplace for filmmakers to meet with U.S. and Brazilian producers, distributors, sales agents and financiers. Festival founders Adriana Dutra, Cláudia Dutra and Viviane Spinelli have since expanded from Miami and in recent years have produced Inffinito Festivals for audiences in New York, London, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Vancouver and Canudos (Brazil).

The Festival receives professional support and programming input each year from prominent figures in the Brazilian film production, distribution and financial worlds in their roles as Festival Curators. They include: Oscar-nominated O2 Filmes director-producer Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardner); Paulo Sérgio Almeida, CEO of Filme B, Brazil’s leading box-office analysis and domestic film production and distribution monitoring agency; LC Barreto executive Paula Barreto, producer of Lula, Son of Brazil, Brazil’s official entry to the 2011 Oscar race for Best Foreign Language Film; Migdal Filmes CEO Iafa Britz, producer behind Brazil’s most expensive feature to date, Our Home: The Astral City (Nosso Lar); Gávea Filmes owner Bianca de Felippes, veteran producer of Carlota Joaquina, Princess of Brazil (1995), which launched the rebirth of modern-day cinematic production in Brazil; and, MovieMobz digital distribution company founder Marco Aurélio Marcondes, also an independent domestic distributor with Europa Filmes, the company behind A Grande Família and Ó Pai Ó!, as well as many Hollywood films, including Million Dollar Baby and Brokeback Mountain.

2011 Brazilian Film Festival Of Miami Highlights:
Opening Night Screenings, Friday, August 19: At the Colony Theatre, the Festival will present the 2010 Crystal Lens Award winners for Best Short Film (The Payback, by director André Rolim) and Best Feature Film (Time of Fear, by director Sérgio Rezende and starring the festival’s 2010 Career Tribute recipient, actress Andrea Beltrão), starting at 8:00 p.m. At the Miami Beach Cinematheque, the 2010 Crystal Lens Award winner for Best Documentary (DZI Croquettes, by directors Tatiana Issa and Raphael Alvarez), starting at 9:00 p.m. (Admission is FREE to all Opening Night screenings.)

Crystal Lens Awards Night Ceremony & Career Tribute of Arnaldo Jabor, Saturday, August 27: The Festival will close at the Colony Theatre, starting at 8:00 p.m., with the Crystal Lens Awards Night Ceremony, followed by the Career Tribute honoring the life and world cinema contributions of Cinema Novo auteur Arnaldo Jabor, capping the evening with the Florida Premiere of his first feature in 25 years: The Supreme Happiness (A Suprema Felicidade).