, a one-stop-shopping film commission for all audiovisual production needs within the state, including permits, locations and police assistance.

The RIO FILM COMMISSION will be headed by Steve Solot, former Latin-American Senior Vice-President for the Motion Picture Association, and current President of the Latin American Training Center-LATC, a regional audiovisual training and consulting firm in Rio. Boosted by RIO GLOBAL, a R$ 3 million (approximately US$ 1.8 million) fund aimed at attracting feature films that will help promote Rio de Janeiro around the world, RIO FILM COMMISSION’s mission is to market Rio de Janeiro internationally as a prime location for audiovisual content production.

Beyond upgrading standard film commission services and infrastructure, Solot plans a complete revamping of the existing film commission website and location database, an initial cash rebate for international productions equal to 5% of in-state film production spends, an accreditation system for production services providers, an incentive for foreign productions to offer local film crew on-the-job training and workshops, and the inauguration of an international production office space with basic infrastructure for visiting producers.

Solot intends to turn the State of Rio de Janeiro into the one of the world’s most attractive audiovisual content production destinations by employing his many years of contacts with the major studios, and most recently through LATC, with leading independents in the US, including members of the Independent Feature Project-IFP, Independent Film and Television Alliance-IFTA and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers-NALIP.

In order to push this agenda, Solot is organizing a trade mission to Los Angeles in early 2010 for the mayor and governor of the State of Rio to promote Rio as the principal audiovisual pole of Brazil and sign an MOU on topics of mutual interest in the AV sector.

The RIO FILM COMMISSION is part of the newly-established RIO AUDIOVISUAL program, geared towards developing and stimulating audiovisual activity in the city and the state of Rio de Janeiro through the establishment of:

A new R$ 18 million (around US$ 9.97 million) FUNCINE financing fund for production and distribution of audiovisual content and theater construction and refurbishing;
A business incubator to develop AV entrepreneurship;
A new Rio de Janeiro Audiovisual Pole, in the Docks Area;
A new broad-based Incentive Program for 2009/2010;
With this new partnership, both the State and City government of Rio de Janeiro acknowledge the strategic importance of the creative industry to the region’s economy and the growth potential of AV in the 21st century.

For more information, please contact J. Emilio Rondeau at jercult@gmail.com, 0115521 23331331.