Rio2C 2026 Highlights Top Brazilian Creative Industry Talents

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — The upcoming 2026 edition of Rio2C is poised to showcase a stellar lineup of prominent figures from Brazil's creative sectors. The event, which runs from May 26 to May 31 at the Cidade de Artes in Rio, will host approximately 2,000 speakers delivering keynotes or participating in panels that tackle pressing issues within the creative industries. This year's program includes acclaimed directors Wagner de Assis, Esmir Filho, and Carlos Saldanha, alongside journalist and author Caco Barcellos, writer Thalita Rebouças, documentary filmmaker Ricardo Calil, and comedian João Vicente de Castro.

Wagner de Assis, a director, producer, and screenwriter who founded the production company Cinética, is set to participate in the session "Faith Moves Mountains and Engages Audiences." This panel will explore local productions centered on religious and spiritual themes. De Assis has directed ten feature films, the majority of which delve into Spiritism, particularly the Kardecist branch. Allan Kardec, a French educator, codified this doctrine in the 19th century, but Brazil traditionally boasts the largest global population of Kardecist Spiritism followers. De Assis's films have cultivated a dedicated niche audience, with some achieving mainstream success. For instance, Fox's 2010 release "Nosso Lar" ("Astral City: A Spiritual Journey") became a local blockbuster, selling over 4 million tickets. Its sequel, "Nosso Lar 2: Os Mensageiros," released in 2024 by Disney's Star, also performed strongly at the box office, drawing 1.6 million admissions. "Rio2C has already demonstrated its capacity to unite people and foster discussions on vital topics. I'm thrilled that the intersection of spirituality and cinema is being highlighted this year," de Assis shared with Variety. The filmmaker is currently working on three new projects. Disney is slated to release "Nosso Lar 3: Vida Eterna," starring Carol Castro and Fabio Assunção, in January 2027. Like its predecessors, this installment is based on a book psychographed by the renowned Brazilian spiritist medium Chico Xavier (1910-2002), who claimed the spirit of André Luiz influenced the writing. De Assis also shot "The Fox Sisters," an English-language biopic about the 19th-century pioneers of Spiritism in the U.S., in New Jersey and Connecticut. The film has premiered at festivals and is expected to open in Brazil this year. Additionally, he has completed "Emmanuel," a biopic of Chico Xavier's spiritual guide, with local distributor Imagem planning a Brazilian release in the second half of 2027. "I appreciate Rio2C's broad scope, which encourages the coexistence of cinema, technology, music, science, and many other fields," de Assis noted. "It's truly enjoyable to walk around the venue and encounter people from such diverse artistic and professional backgrounds."

The fusion of film and music is central to the creative approach of Esmir Filho, a director, producer, and screenwriter. He wrote and directed "Homem com H," the 2025 biopic of Brazilian singer Ney Matogrosso. Produced and distributed by Paris Filmes, the film garnered critical acclaim and sold 643,013 tickets, ranking sixth among local releases last year. Filho's debut feature, "Os Famosos e os Duendes da Morte," follows a teenager named Mr. Tambourine living in a small Southern Brazilian town who dreams of attending a Bob Dylan concert. "I'm deeply passionate about music. For me, sound isn't an afterthought; it's integral to the storytelling process from the start. I don't separate cinema from music—I believe cinema is music," Filho told Variety. "In my projects, I always create playlists before writing. While developing the screenplay, I'm already securing song rights." His latest work is "Atenção para o Refrão," a docuseries exploring iconic Brazilian song refrains, hosted by his sister Sarah Oliveira on pay-TV channel Bis and streaming service Globoplay. Filho is now working on a feature-length documentary titled "Ney por trás das máscaras," which follows Matogrosso during the grand parade of the Rio de Janeiro Carnival in 2026, where the singer was honored as the theme of the samba school Imperatriz Leopoldinense. His next project is a film for Netflix, "The Stranger in Bed" ("Uma Estranha na Cama"), based on a Raphael Montes novel, which Filho describes as an erotic suspense story reminiscent of classic works by Brian De Palma and Adrian Lyne, with a tropical twist.

Carlos Saldanha, known for directing animated hits like "Ice Age: The Meltdown," "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," "Rio," "Rio 2," "Ferdinand," and "Harold and the Purple Crayon," will engage in a conversation with explorer Amyr Klink, who circumnavigated the Antarctic continent. Their discussion will use the "personal ocean" as a metaphor for life's journey. The panel "How to Create for Distracted Minds" will address the effects of multi-screen consumption on narrative construction, bringing together writer Thalita Rebouças, known for her best-selling teen novels, screenwriter Raul Perez, and creator Pedro Ivo. Journalist Genesson Honorato will moderate this reflection on rhythm, language, and engagement in an era of intense competition for audience attention. Actor and director Heloísa Périssé will join screenwriter Renata Sofia and director Anita Barbosa for the panel "Love Is in the Air: the New Romantic Comedy," a genre experiencing a resurgence driven by streaming and box office successes. Rio2C 2026 will also feature "Audiovisual in Extreme Situations," with Sylvestre Campe and Gustavo Gama, director and producer of the docuseries "The Arctic Labyrinth," and Karina Oliani, co-founder of Pitaya Filmes, discussing the logistical, climatic, and human challenges filmmakers face when capturing stories in remote areas. Complementing this, veteran investigative reporter, writer, and documentary filmmaker Caco Barcellos will deliver a lecture on storytelling and journalistic responsibility. Barcellos, who has investigated police violence, organized crime, and human rights abuses in Brazil and recently covered the Iranian War, stated, "I'll discuss my 50 years of exclusively street reporting, always pursuing two interconnected themes: violence and social and economic injustice." His book "Rota 66," published in 1993 and winner of the Jabuti Prize in the reporting category, was adapted into the fiction series "Rota 66: A Polícia que Mata" ("Rota 66: The Killer Unit"), released in September 2022 on Globoplay. Another Jabuti Prize winner, "Abusado" (2003), is an investigative nonfiction book detailing the story of Márcio Amaro de Oliveira, a drug lord who controlled the Santa Marta favela in Rio de Janeiro. "'Abusado' will also become a series. It's a nonfiction novel that avoids Manichaeism, with no clear heroes or villains. Everyone is portrayed as a human being exposed to external survival laws and constant risks of shootouts, escapes, and murders," Barcellos explained. "In what may be the most controversial episode, we'll show how 'Abusado' convinced pop star Michael Jackson and director Spike Lee to film the music video 'They Don't Care About Us' in the heart of the favela, an event that brought global attention to Dona Marta. 'Abusado' personally ensured Jackson's safety and that of all musicians, models, and dancers on his team."

The panel "The Impact of Live Content on Audience and Business" will feature Mônica Pimentel, Warner Bros. Discovery's VP of content and head of talent; Gabriel Volfzon, Globo's channel director; and Douglas Rodrigues, YouTube Brasil's strategic partner manager, analyzing live content's relevance and monetization strategies. In the Writer's Room section of Rio2C 2026, discussions will explore diverse approaches to audiovisual creation, from adapting real stories to building narratives from investigative journalism. Documentary maker Ricardo Calil (co-director of "Eu Sou Carlos Imperial"), Cássia Dian, and Nátara Ney will debate criteria for choosing between documentary, series, or feature film formats for true-story productions in the panel "Is This Story Worth a Documentary?" The dialogue between reality and narrative will be the focus of "Investigative Journalism at the Origin of Great Stories," featuring Daniela Arbex, Malu Gaspar, Fábio Gusmão, and Rodolfo Schneider, who will discuss how investigations are transformed into film and series content. Finally, in "How a Writers' Room Works by Porta dos Fundos," comedian João Vicente and Daniel Belmonte will detail the production company's creative process, from brainstorming and character building to developing narratives for short videos.