RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Fantastic:Brasil debuted at this year’s Rio Film Festival as a new industry platform for genre cinema in the largest country in South America. The initiative is a partnership between the Fantastic Pavilion Cannes, Rio Market, Festival do Rio, FICCI Industria, #LINK Documentary Industry Meeting, Mórbido Film Fest, and Sitges, and launched three calls for emerging voices in Latin American genre cinema.
The initiative’s first edition is being held over Oct. 2-7 at Armazém da Utopia, the home of the festival’s industry arm, RioMarket. The initiative was conceived as a platform for the development, training, pitching, and international circulation of fantastic film projects. It brings together a collaborative network comprising the Fantastic Pavilion Cannes; Fantastic Embassy EFM Berlinale; Sitges – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia; Festival do Rio; FICCI Industria, the industry program of the Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival; #LINK, a documentary industry meeting held in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro; Mexico’s Mórbido Film Fest, and Sanfic Industry in Chile.
Founder of Mórbido Film Fest and executive director of the Fantastic Pavilion at the Marché du Film, Pablo Guisa Koestinger was in Rio for the first time to walk an industry aidinece through the initiative’s activities, which culminated in a pitching session and roundtable on Monday evening. Speaking with Variety at the event, the veteran said the Pavilion’s role in Fantastic:Brasil is “to connect the territory to the pipeline.”
“The fantastic is being made everywhere in the world, in every language and on every budget,” he adds. “Talent has never been the problem. The problem is circulation. A project developed in Rio should be able to find its partners in Colombia, Santiago, Mexico, Los Angeles, Berlin, Cannes, Abu Dhabi, and travel the world the way these stories deserve. We are making that possible. We are building the Fantastic Nation.”
At the end of the project presentations, Guisa told the audience at RioMarket he was “very happy with this first edition of Fantastic: Brasil, and I am confident we will watch films presented here coming out over the next few years, and you’ll all be able to tell everyone you heard about them first here at the Rio Film Festival.”
For its inaugural edition, Fantastic:Brasil featured three independent calls, each focused on a specific area of Latin American fantastic cinema. WomanInFan Brasil, the Brazilian edition of the program created by the Sitges Film Festival, dedicated to fantastic genre projects directed by Brazilian women; Monstra – Fantastic Queer Lab, a call for queer fantastic genre projects from across Latin America, presented in partnership with Mórbido Film Fest and its #LGBTerror section; and #LINK Vertical, a program dedicated to the creation, production and international circulation of audiovisual works conceived natively for the vertical 9:16 format.
Under the concept True Dystopic, the #LINK Vertical program brings together auteur documentary and genre cinema, using real locations in Rio de Janeiro as settings for imagining speculative futures. Each call included between four and six projects, with the chosen teams participating in a development lab and pitch sessions with industry professionals.
Through the resulting network, selected projects may have access to presentation and circulation opportunities at partner events and platforms, including the Fantastic Pavilion at the Marché du Film in Cannes, the Fantastic Embassy at Berlin’s European Film Market, FICCI in Cartagena de Indias, and Mórbido Film Fest in Mexico City. In this sense, Fantastic:Brasil creates an international circulation pathway connecting Rio de Janeiro, Cartagena de Indias, Mexico City, Berlin, and Cannes.
See the Fantastic:Brasil award winners below:
Fantastic Round Robin Award, Fantastic Pavilion, Marché du Film, Cannes
“Entranhas” (MONSTRA, Fantastic Queer Lab), dir. Lucas Procópio Caetano, Fourfé Filmes (Limeira, SP)
While getting ready for a show, drag queen Anorma tells three stories to her audience: a single person, bound, gagged, and blindfolded. With each story, clues emerge about who the victim is, how they connect to the tales, and why Anorma plans to kill them. Procópio Caetano co-wrote “Brazilian Horror Cinema in the 21st Century.” His short project “O Berço” won ECM+LAB/Panvision 2025 and was presented at the Marché du Film 2026.
“Fotograma” (WomanInFan Brasil), dir. Fernanda Pessoa de Barros, Muritiba Filmes (São Paulo/Curitiba)
A researcher studying São Paulo’s film history finds a mysterious 16mm film from the 1970s that depicts an apparent human sacrifice. As she investigates where it came from, she begins to see her own image inside it. The project went through EFM Fiction Toolbox and PAS Nantes. Barros is a former Berlinale Talent and has directed the documentaries “Histórias Que Nosso Cinema (Não) Contava,” “Zona Árida” and “Vai e Vem.” Her films have screened at IDFA, Sheffield DocFest and DOK Leipzig. This is her first fiction feature.
Mórbido Lab, SANFIC (Santiago, Chile)
“Chupacu” (MONSTRA, Fantastic Queer Lab), dir. Antonia Baudouin Andrade, Carneiro Verde Filmes (Goiânia/SP)
Isolated in a rural mansion during a testosterone-fueled barbecue, a group of “agro-machos” must rethink their relationships and everything they know about masculinity when the Chupacu, a terrifying alien monster, starts attacking… one ass at a time. Andrade worked on the script for Gustavo Vinagre’s Rotterdam-selected “Privadas de Suas Vidas” and worked in writers’ rooms for Amazon, Netflix, Star+ and Warner. “Chupacu” is her first feature as director. Her producer, Rodrigo Carneiro, is behind Teddy Award winner “Três Tigres Tristes.”
WomanInFan – Next phase in Cartagena
“O Que Acontece Quando a Coisa Acaba,” dir. Gabriela Amaral Almeida, Capivara Movies (Rio de Janeiro)
Summoned by her mother’s death, Alma returns to the family home. Trapped by her sister in a sinister psychological game, she must face the guilt of the past and the dangers of madness in the present. Almeida is the renowned director behind “Friendly Beast,” “Panic Room,” and “A Sombra do Pai.”
“Unclaimed Copper” (Working Title), dir. Guenia Reichmann Lemos, Moro Filmes (Curitiba)
In a world as overpopulated as it is lonely, where human ashes have become raw material for illegal drugs, Iori finds a semblance of family in an orphan girl and her building’s octogenarian doorman. Lemos has been an actress for over 35 years. Her short film “Tente Sua Sorte” won 29 awards.
Post-production awards (teaser)
“Entranhas,” Dir. Lucas Procópio Caetano · Teaser post-production by Mística. See above.
“Phantasmas Anonymas,” dir. Giovanna Patané Giovanini, Clubsoda Filmes (Rio de Janeiro), Teaser post-production by Acau
Through a silent, terrifying presence, the ghost of a woman searches the archives of Latin America’s first asylum. She links the historical erasure of women forcibly committed in the late 19th century to the real terror that still violates and imprisons us. The project is selected for BGDM MafiaMind 2026. Giovanini was part of Berlinale Talents Buenos Aires. Her documentary feature “Um Dia Para Susana” had Tribeca Film Institute support and screened at Mostra de São Paulo and Havana. This would be her first fiction feature.
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