Millions of Brazilians are expected to watch the Oscars ceremony this Sunday with hopes that the country will repeat last year’s milestone and take home another trophy. "The Secret Agent" has secured four Academy Award nominations, including an unprecedented nod for a Brazilian in the best actor category for Wagner Moura, who also won a Golden Globe this season for best actor in a drama. The film’s recognition follows last year’s win for Brazil’s "I’m Still Here," which captured the nation’s first Oscar for best international feature film and galvanized public pride across a country of 213 million people.
This year’s nominations also include Brazil-born cinematographer Adolpho Veloso for his work on "Train Dreams," reinforcing the impression that Brazilian filmmakers and technicians are increasingly competitive at the highest levels of global cinema.
Interviews with a cross-section of directors, producers, industry executives and analysts indicate that Brazil’s current standing is the product of sustained government investment and a growing engagement with multinational streamers. Over roughly two decades, state support has helped expand the country’s output of feature films, deepen international co-productions and position Brazil to capture increased spending from platforms seeking local content to drive subscribers.
Government investment has been tangible: the national cinema agency Ancine provided a record $267 million last year, a level of funding industry participants say has helped fuel production and exports. The commercial trajectory reflects those efforts. According to a study commissioned by the Motion Picture Association, exports of Brazilian audiovisual services rose at an annual rate of 19% between 2017 and 2023, reaching $507 million in 2023.
For some observers, Brazil’s trajectory resembles the evolution of other national entertainment exporters. Josephine Bourgois, executive director at Projeto Paradiso, a nonprofit that helps bring Brazilian cinema to international audiences, described the current moment as a "perfect storm" of maturity, talent and compelling stories. "Beyond its pop appeal, the country is also showing it is a viable partner," Bourgois said. "Brazil is a place you can work with, a place where you can do business."
That perception of improved business savvy matters. Historically, Brazil’s cultural exports have been hamstrung by perceptions of an unstable business environment - abrupt policy shifts, currency swings and infrastructure shortfalls have made foreign partners cautious. The country’s cinematic reputation has, however, long captured foreign audiences: the 1960 Oscar winner "Black Orpheus," set in Rio de Janeiro but produced by France, is an early example of Brazilian stories reaching global screens.
Two episodes in the last few decades show how artistic success has translated into business opportunities. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Brazil began to reverse some of the constraints on its film business. Director Walter Salles nearly achieved Oscar success with "Central Station," which was nominated in what was then the best foreign film category, while star Fernanda Montenegro became the first Brazilian to receive a best actress nomination. More recently, Salles returned to the awards conversation with last year’s win for "I’m Still Here." Meanwhile, Fernanda Torres was also nominated for best actress, signaling a renewed visibility for Brazilian talent.
A surge in domestic production in the early 2000s - a period the industry refers to as its comeback - coincided with renewed subsidy policies and a proliferation of production houses. As production scaled up, Brazilian directors, actors and technical crews became more present in Hollywood and international projects, creating a virtuous cycle: award recognition attracted attention and then commercial projects. Andrea Barata Ribeiro, a founding partner at production company O2, said that the global interest following high-profile titles led to international projects for the firm, citing the way the success of "City of God" - which received four Oscar nominations in 2004 - opened doors for projects such as the 2008 film "Blindness." "It sparks an interest, conversations," Barata Ribeiro said.
Still, producers and directors emphasize that government incentives remain a cornerstone of this expansion. Kleber Mendonca Filho, director of "The Secret Agent," noted that a substantial portion of his early work relied on public funding. His first feature, "Neighboring Sounds," benefited from funding aimed at productions outside Brazil’s wealthier southeastern states. Mendonca Filho also said that early screenplay development on "The Secret Agent" was partially financed by an affirmative-action style government program that ceased under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. "Today my name is well-established, but people forget that I started with a film that came from an affirmative (action) funding program," he said.
Industry participants are trying to keep momentum: this year Brazil presented a record 10 productions at the Berlinale, one of the world’s leading film festivals. Among those titles, "Gugu’s World," which follows a boy and his increasingly frail grandmother, earned two awards outside the festival’s main competition.
Another major factor reshaping Brazil’s film economy is the global streaming boom. Executives at multinational media companies say the primary commercial incentive for investing in Brazilian productions is to capture the country’s large and engaged domestic audience - including viewers of popular soap operas - but those investments can sometimes yield broader international appeal.
Monica Pimentel, vice president of content at Warner Bros Discovery Brazil, said that 15 years ago it was often difficult to find production companies with the experience and scale to develop multiple shows. "Today I see how these production companies are extremely qualified," she said.
Netflix in particular has registered rapid growth for Brazilian content: the company reported that global views of Brazilian titles rose 60% in the second half of 2025. Titles driving that growth included the series "Rulers of Fortune," which explores Rio de Janeiro’s illegal gambling networks, and the film "Caramelo," a 2025 release about a chef and a caramel-colored dog that remained among Netflix’s 10 most-watched films for eight weeks and drew almost 50 million views.
Elisabetta Zenatti, vice president for content at Netflix Brazil and a co-producer of "The Secret Agent," said Brazil ranks among Netflix’s main markets. "There are several reasons for this - our audience, for example, is known for being extremely engaged, driving fandom and shaping conversations," she said.
The influx of streaming investment has also prompted calls for regulation that would channel platform revenue back into local production. Actors, producers and directors are pressing lawmakers to consider legislation modeled on rules in countries such as France and Australia, which would mandate minimum quotas for local content and require platforms to allocate some revenue to fund domestic industry initiatives. The article’s sources indicate that this policy push is motivated by a desire to sustain production levels and broaden export potential.
Brazilians are increasingly looking to export formats and series for international adaptation. Globo’s medical drama "Under Pressure," which focuses on an emergency room coping with severe resource shortages, is being adapted for the U.S. market. Globo’s 2012 soap opera "Brazil Avenue" was remade in Turkey as "Leyla," and that Turkish version is now being offered back to Brazilian audiences, illustrating a cross-border exchange of creative formats.
Beyond commercial considerations, industry figures describe a creative moment in which Brazilian storytellers are using internationally visible platforms to probe the country’s history and identity. Both recent Oscar nominees delve into the legacy of Brazil’s military dictatorship - a subject that has resonated both domestically and abroad. Wagner Moura, one of the nominated actors, reflected on the broader cultural significance of international recognition in a recent online conversation with director Kleber Mendonca Filho, saying: "This is something that Americans are so great at, to create, to export their culture." He added that the idea that Brazilians can do that as well is "beautiful - not only for foreigners but for ourselves."
Despite the industry’s achievements, several sources in the Brazilian film community expressed concern about the durability of public support. With national budget priorities shifting and a looming election that could usher in a government less inclined to fund cinema, many worry that subsidies and programs that helped build capacity could be scaled back. Those uncertainties feed directly into the economics of production and distribution, and therefore the commercial plans of both domestic companies and multinational investors.
For now, the industry’s moment on the world stage - underscored by multiple Oscar nominations and a visible presence at international festivals - has highlighted a competitive and increasingly export-oriented sector. Whether that momentum will be matched by consistent policy and regulatory support remains an open question that industry participants say will determine the pace of Brazil’s growth as a global entertainment supplier.
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