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Zombies. The Undead. Reincarnation. These were some of the central themes and motifs displayed throughout an alarming amount of films in the 2019 official Cannes Program, a precedent which started with its opening film, Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die. Likewise, Mati Diop’s Atlantique. And then, the Director’s Fortnight thought it fitting to premiere something like Bertrand Bonello’s Zombi Child alongside Alice Furtado’s debut Sick, Sick, Sick. Critics’ Week contemplated similar issues with Heroes Don’t Die. On paper, the 2019 program held much promise—however, masterworks (the notion of a ‘masterpiece’ has taken on a lugubrious exaggeration) have been few and far between.…...

Led by “Bacurau,” directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles, and Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor,” both playing Cannes competition, Brazil has five movies selected for this year’s Cannes, seven if including Acid, the best result in living memory. It also makes Brazil Cannes’ fourth-biggest national cinema presence, after France (46 productions), the U.S. (11) and Belgium (nine).

One more title can be partly chalked up to Brazil: Robert Eggers’ “The Lighthouse,” produced by Rodrigo Teixeira at Sao Paulo-based Rt Features, which, extraordinarily enough, also has “The Invisible Life” and “Port Authority” in Un Certain Regard.

Yet most of these selections came on April 18, the same day that Christian de Castro, head of Brazil’s all-powerful film-tv agency head Ancine, recommended staff to halt new and recently approved incentive awards, in a memorandum leaked to the press.

Ancine contributes some $300 million a year into Brazil’s film-tv industries.

The...

On March 26, Apex, the state-run Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, announced that it was pulling key financing for Cinema do Brasil, Brasil’s private-sector equivalent of France’s trade body UniFrance.

With a new top management set to settle in at Apex from mid-May, film export org Cinema do Brasil may be pulled back from the brink, the government informing the org in late April that it would be interested in renewing Apex funding.

Cannes may not be CdB’s last market. Brazil’s left-leaning industry is light years away from President Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right government. Even so, according to Andre Sturm, CdB topper, the government recognizes that film gives a good image of Brazil abroad.

The Apex scare underscores the current volatility of Brazilian politics. Its resolution would reflect one of the biggest revolutions shaping cinema in this century: the dramatic development in world cinema production, of...

On March 26, Apex, the state-run Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, announced that it was pulling key financing for Cinema do Brasil, Brazil’s private-sector equivalent of France’s trade body UniFrance.

With a new top management set to settle in at Apex from mid-May, film export org Cinema do Brasil may be pulled back from the brink, the government informing the org in late April that it would be interested in renewing Apex funding.

Cannes may not be CdB’s last market. Brazil’s left-leaning industry is light years away from President Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right government. Even so, according to Andre Sturm, CdB topper, the government recognizes that film gives a good image of Brazil abroad.

The Apex scare underscores the current volatility of Brazilian politics. Its resolution would reflect one of the biggest revolutions shaping cinema in this century: the dramatic development in world cinema production, of...