RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced May 30 at Rio2C the creation of Tela Brasil (Screen Brazil), a free-of-charge public streaming service with an initial catalog of 555 Brazilian productions.
Anyone with an account in Gov.br, the official digital platform of the Brazilian federal government, can log into Tela Brasil. The new streamer offers 139 feature films, 85 medium-length films or television movies, 267 short films and 64 series produced locally from 1910 to 2025.
“Tela Brasil will help people better understand a country like Brazil. I hope Tela Brasil becomes an important platform for bringing Brazilians closer to their own culture. It’s very important for us to get to know our own people,” Lula said at the launch ceremony. “You will find an outstanding and vibrant selection of programming on Tela Brasil.”
Lula made the announcement in a ceremony at Rio2C with film and TV industry representatives and governmental authorities, such as Margareth Menezes, Brazil’s minister of culture and a star singer, Eduardo Cavaliere, mayor of the City of Rio, and Ricardo Couto, interim governor of the State of Rio.
During the ceremony, the Ministry of Culture and the Brazilian Communication Company (EBC) inked an agreement for EBC’s catalog of more than 150 titles, totaling approximately 3,000 hours of content, to join Tela Brasil.
The catalog includes TV programs such as talk show “Sem Censura.” Among the feature films currently available on Tela Brasil are Glauber Rocha’s “Black God, White Devil” (1964), Cacá Diegues’ “Xica da Silva” (1976), Fábio Barreto’s Oscar-nominee “O quatrilho” (1995), Suzana Amaral’s “Hour of the Star” (1985), Bruno Barreto’s Oscar-nominee “Four Days in September” (1997), Hector Babenco’s “Carandiru” (2003), Jayme Monjardim”s “Olga” (2004) and Lúcia Murat’s “Almost Brothers” (2005).
The federal government invested R$9 million ($1.8 million) in 2024 and 2025 to create Tela Brasil, including content licensing, technological development, accessibility features, curation and project management. The Ministry of Culture and the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL) developed the platform’s technology.
“Culture opens minds, broadens horizons and helps us see further. We must create opportunities for Brazilians to have access to everything,” Lula added. “We have extraordinary artists. Why shouldn’t we be proud to showcase what we create? Our country must undergo a transformation so that it can, once and for all, chart its own course and fully assert its independence.”
(Left to right) Minister of Culture Margareth Menezes, President Lula, First Lady Janja Lula da Silva and Minister of Industry Márcio Elias Rosa. Credit: Filmart
In the ceremony, Márcio Elias Rosa, Brazil’s minister of industry, commerce and services (MDIC), stressed that the audiovisual industry has been included in the New Industry Brazil (Nova Indústria Brasil), the federal government’s umbrella program for the development of the country’s industrial sector. A working group within MDIC has identified 11 priorities for the development of Brazil’s audiovisual industry.
“The audiovisual industry accounts for 0.6% of Brazil’s GDP and generates more than 680,000 direct jobs, employing a highly skilled workforce. Our goal is to increase its share of GDP to 1%. It is an ambitious target, but these professionals are capable, and we are committed to working toward it,” Rosa said. He added that on June 17 the government will hold a seminar bringing together representatives of federal public banks — Caixa Econômica Federal, BNDES and Banco do Brasil — as well as other public institutions, such as Finep, to design credit lines tailored to the audiovisual industry.
