ABSTRACT
Although the international film festival circuit, a largely European invention, has been around since the 1940s, a new paradigm for production and circulation of Latin American films has emerged over recent decades that forms a unique creative and financial symbiosis between regional and global film festivals and the films they promote. It is worth recalling that these European festivals, which serve as film distribution markets, have for decades exerted a dominant influence on the kinds of Latin American films that get screened outside of the region. In the post-World War II period, it was simply recognition through competitive awards that opened doors for Latin American filmmakers and their producers (Lima Barreto’s O Cangaceiro [1953] and the films of Argentinian Leopoldo Torre Nilson in the 1960s).
