The Brazilian Tourism Board Embratur is spearheading an eight-pillar strategy to promote audiovisual tourism in the country. After all, research shows that around 90 million people around the world choose their vacation destinations based on what they see in movies, TV series, and digital games.
Case in point: Dubrovnik, Croatia, is still overwhelmed with tourists wanting to see the site of Cersei Lannister’s Walk of Shame on Game of Thrones. Rio de Janeiro and its famous Carnival were probably first brought to the world’s attention by the 1959 Oscar-winning classic The Black Orpheus. More modern masterpieces like “City of God,” “Elite Squad,” and “Four Days in September” introduced us to a grittier yet more fascinating city. But the embrators are also keen to draw people away from Rio de Janeiro’s secluded beaches.
Kleber Mendonça’s The Secret Agent, which has been nominated for four Oscars, won four major awards at Cannes last year and swept the Premios Platino in April, has put the spotlight on Recife, the regional capital where it was filmed.
Recife, provided by Embratour
About three years ago, with the resurgence of policies aimed at strengthening the audiovisual industry, Embratour began developing a portfolio of projects aimed at working with the audiovisual sector, in cooperation with the federal government, film commissions, third sector institutions, film festivals, producers and distributors.
This was the first time in the agency’s 60-year history that it had collaborated with the audiovisual department.
“For Embratour, strengthening the link between culture, image and tourism is a powerful international promotion strategy that can turn curiosity and awareness of Brazil into a real journey. At the same time, it helps to strengthen the creative economy, expand Brazil’s global visibility and support a more sustainable development of both the tourism and audiovisual sectors,” said Roberto Gebaldo, Director of Management and Innovation at Embratour.
“Increasing the international reach of Brazil’s audiovisual works is also a way to promote Brazil to the world. Audiovisual storytelling has the unique power to evoke curiosity and emotional connection. When films showcase Brazil’s landscapes, stories and culture, it also inspires travel and brings people closer together,” he added.
These eight initiatives form the core of Embratur’s audiovisual strategy, which is still under construction.
screen brazil
Introduced last year in partnership with Projeto Paradiso with the aim of strengthening the presence of Brazilian cinema on the world stage, Screen Brasil will select three projects and their respective distributors.
The second winner will be announced on May 18th at the Cannes Marché du Film and will each receive $15,000 for film-related distribution, promotion and marketing efforts.
Screen Brasil plans to introduce two application rounds (one at the end of 2026 and one at the beginning of 2027) in line with negotiations with festivals and distributors that will take place throughout the year. The release period has also been extended from 6 months to 12 months, giving distributors more flexibility in scheduling their releases.
HBF+Brazil
Launched last year, the partnership between Rotterdam Film Festival’s Hubert Bars Foundation (HBF) and Brazil’s Projeto Paradiso, Liofilme, Specine and Embratur, dubbed HBF+Brazil, supports the early development of fiction pictures by Brazilian filmmakers working on their second or third feature films. Grants worth $11,600 (€10,000) will be distributed to selected films, primarily from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. A total of 10 functions received grants last year. Embratour will support two projects this year, for a total of 11 projects.
To celebrate the second edition, the initiative’s partners will host a panel discussion at the Marché du Film in Cannes on Monday, May 18th. The panelists who will participate in the panel discussion will be Tamara Tatishvili (Netherlands), director of the Hubert Bars Foundation, Frank Hove (Netherlands) of Baldur Film, Ivan Mello of CUP Film (São Paulo), and Tatiana Leite of Bubbles Project (Rio de Janeiro).
Call for short films – “Brasil com S”
For the third consecutive year, Embratour has launched the “Brazil Com S” open call for short films. This is the first of eight initiatives, supporting five short films a year with the aim of discovering new talent and promoting domestic film production.
Projects span all genres, from novels, animation, documentaries, and other non-serialized formats. Selected projects will receive production, directorial and scriptwriting guidance through a partnership with Projeto Paradiso and Paradiso Multiplica. The finished film will premiere at the Tiradentes Film Festival and then be shown to distributors at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.
To date, the program has developed nine award-winning short films and five more are currently being mentored.
Supporting Brazilian film festivals both domestically and internationally
Through strategic sponsorships, Embratur funds and energizes film festivals in Brazil and abroad, using film as a bridge between audiovisual storytelling and tourism.
In the past three years alone, Embratour has supported major film festival events such as the São Paulo International Film Festival, the Gramado Film Festival, the Tiradentes Film Festival, Rio2C, the Rio Film Festival, the Paris Brazilian Film Festival, the Toronto Brazilian Film Festival, and the Cartagena Film Festival.
Partnership with Netflix
Inspired by successful Netflix campaigns in France and Spain, the partnership has launched a virtual travel guide featuring itineraries and experiences related to popular Netflix productions that focus on the destinations and cultures that Embratur wants to promote.
Eight guides are expected to be released by December, with editions focusing on the Amazon region and Brazilian beaches already available.
“We continue to develop these projects with Netflix, producing several series and launching a new project this June focused on the host city of the Women’s World Cup. The idea is always the same: to showcase Brazil in a way that feels natural, rather than obvious. Across all our projects, our goal is to bring Brazil to screen through authentic stories, places and experiences,” says Cristiano Braga, Embratour Audiovisual Coordinator.
digital games
For the third time, the Brazil Ta Pura Games award brings together Embratour, the Brazilian Game Developers Association and Brazilian studios to promote the country through games, creativity and innovation.
Selected games must be original, high-quality works that showcase Brazilian culture through story, characters, scenery, music, and contemporary cultural expressions. In 2026, Embratur will announce the winning titles for all three editions at a dedicated showcase booth at Gamescom Cologne.
Marina Arruda, Innovation Manager at Embratur, said: “Young viewers spend hours immersed in games, so we saw an opportunity to showcase Brazilian culture, food, music and celebrations in that space as well. We’ve launched an initiative and open call for game developers to bring more Brazilian stories into games.”
Cria Brasil Award – Partnership with YouTube
Aimed to reach new and younger audiences, this call for proposals will select and fund up to three original short-form video projects from digital creators with active YouTube channels. Its aim is to showcase Brazil as a diverse, sustainable and innovative tourism destination.
It is looking for projects that are original, highly engaging and designed to have a strong digital impact, expanding Brazilian representation across online video platforms and strengthening its global presence. Selected works may also be used by Embratur for internal promotion and international activities. This is the first edition of this initiative focused on the audiovisual language of digital creators.
Creation of the Federal Film Commission
Embratour, together with a network of six ministries and Brazil’s 30 regional film commissions, forms part of the technical working group developing the Federal Film Commission. This bill has already been completed and is currently being submitted to the Ministry of Culture, where efforts are underway to implement it as national public policy.
This may be the most difficult proposition given the relative slowness of government responses in general.
“The idea behind the Federal Film Commission is to establish federal-level incentives that can attract international productions more widely to Brazil, while at the same time encouraging projects to circulate throughout the country and showcase diverse regions,” Braga says.
