Argentine cinema in Brazil: integration, cooperation and competition

Abstract

The article aims to contribute to the growing body of research that addresses film relations between Argentina and Brazil, specifically analyzing the circulation of Argentine cinema in Brazil and emphasizing the importance of cultural policies (national and supranational) that shape exchanges.

The analysis is based on the compilation and processing of cultural statistics produced by official sources, from which a characterization of the Brazilian market is made, and a panorama is offered on the processes of regional integration that involve both countries (Ibermedia and RECAM ). Then, the presence and performance of Argentine cinema in Brazil are analyzed in depth, separately analyzing the Argentine-Brazilian co-productions and the rest of the movies of Argentine nationality since -as will be argued- these are legally distinct objects.

The interest in analyzing relations between both countries is that they are among the 15 largest producers of feature films worldwide and are -alongside Mexico- the most powerful film industries in Latin America. They have a decades-long track record in terms of regulation and promotion of cinema and a series of co-production and cooperation agreements that strengthened the integration. From the Argentine perspective, Brazil stands out for two aspects: it represents the second most important international destination for Argentine cinema, and, in itself, the Brazilian market is among the ten most extensive in the world regarding viewers. Finally, systematically analyzing these relationships is intended to contribute to understanding the (new) global becoming of the film industry in the 21st century.