Brazil’s Elas Exportam: Fostering Film and Series Exports of Women-Led Companies — SkimNews
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- Elas Exportam, run by Brazil's MDIC, selected its first 14 audiovisual participants in May from seven states (predominantly Rio and São Paulo) for an 88-hour online training course set to complete in November.
- The program's sixth edition is the first to include the film and TV sector, made possible by audiovisual's inclusion in the federal New Industry Brazil (NIB) initiative, per Rio Film Festival executive director Walkiria Barbosa.
- MDIC created Elas Exportam in 2023 in response to a 2022 study showing only 14.5% of Brazilian exporting companies had majority-women shareholders, said department director Janaína Silva.
- Participants — owners, executives and directors of production, post-production and dubbing firms — receive weekly classes plus one-on-one counseling from volunteer female mentors at no charge, covering market intelligence, IP, regulation and pitch training.
- Debora Ivanov, partner at Gullane Filmes (which has sold rights in 100+ countries) and president of Instituto +Mulheres, called the curriculum unmatched by any Brazilian export training aimed at women.
- Recent wins — the Oscar for "I'm Still Here," the Oscar nomination for "The Secret Agent" and awards at Cannes and Venice — have strengthened the Brazil brand abroad and set up the next step of a federal export policy for audiovisual, Barbosa said.
Why it matters: Brazil's first women-only audiovisual export cohort gives 14 executives from seven states a free, mentor-supported path into international sales — directly responding to the 14.5% gender gap in Brazilian exporting firms that MDIC flagged in 2022. By folding audiovisual into a flagship federal industrial program, the government is converting post-Oscar momentum into structured support for women-owned production houses.
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