INTRODUCTION
Welcome
A few weeks before this 36th edition of Kinoforum – São Paulo International Short Film Festival, we lost Zita Carvalhosa, founder and director of the Kinoforum Cultural Association. To honor her legacy and memory, we continue to hold the Festival with the commitment and enthusiasm she always inspired in us, an admirable woman who dedicated more than 40 years to Brazilian cinema, building audiences, opening doors for new filmmakers, and producing short and feature films that left their mark on national cinema. This is what she expected of us.
This year, we are pleased to present a program with more than 250 films from all continents, screened free of charge in nine movie theaters and public spaces. Blending productions by young filmmakers and veterans, the short films continue to be a reflection not only of reality, but also of imaginary worlds. They are distributed among our traditional International Showcase, Latin American Showcase, Limit Showcase, Children's and Youth Showcase, and Brazilian Programs.
Among the highlights of our Special Programs, we bring two programs that celebrate the Dogma Feijoada movement, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Launched at the 2000 Short Film Festival, this manifesto brought racial issues to the center of discussions about Brazilian audiovisual media and yielded significant results.
In partnership with the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, we present the Eco Minds and Sound in Cinema programs. Our international tour also includes a program of new African filmmakers, Conexão Áfricas, and a selection of works by Eastern European animators.
Reinforcing our commitment to training, dissemination, and internationalization of short films, we have a new edition of the Curta & Mercado project, which resumes Kinoforum Labs, a project development space that connects with the network of events that promote laboratories as a fundamental element in the audiovisual production chain.
We thank all the filmmakers who entrusted us with their films, the sponsors and supporters who help us make Kinoforum possible, and the audience that follows us. Our greatest aspiration is to perpetuate the legacy of Zita Carvalhosa and carry this Festival forward for many years to come.
Kinoforum Team
Strengthening Brazilian Audiovisual
The Kinoforum - 36th São Paulo International Short Film Festival reaffirms the commitment of the Audiovisual Secretariat, as part of the Ministry of Culture, to strengthening the sector. There is a clear appreciation of both Brazilian and international short films, promoting the exchange of experiences and languages.
With almost 3,000 films submitted from various countries, Kinoforum is a showcase for global creative power. And the Rouanet Law has been essential in expanding events such as this, with the mobilization of more than R$ 300 million between 2023 and 2024 for the audiovisual sector, strengthening the production, training, and dissemination of cinema in Brazil and worldwide.
Audiovisual Secretariat of the Ministry of Culture
Catalyst for Innovation and Opportunities for the Audiovisual Industry in São Paulo
The Secretariat of Culture, Creative Economy and Industry of the State of São Paulo actively invests in the audiovisual industry as a strategic sector, promoting creation, circulation of works, and strengthening the entire production chain. The audiovisual sector in São Paulo, through its articulation of language and technology, generates concrete opportunities, impacts the creative economy, and projects talent onto the national and international stage.
In this sense, support for Kinoforum – São Paulo International Short Film Festival reaffirms the State Government's commitment to initiatives that contribute to the vitality and dynamism of the sector. Consolidated as the largest short film festival in the country and a hub for dissemination and reflection, Kinoforum welcomes diverse voices and aesthetics, becoming a vibrant territory for exchanges. More than an exhibition, it is a point of convergence that connects filmmakers, viewers, professionals, and students, driving the renewal of audiovisual thinking and practice.
The Festival's activities are aligned with the principles of state cultural policy: expanding access, territorial decentralization, encouraging independent production, and consolidating sustainable circuits of creation and enjoyment. In 2023, the festival was made possible by the Paulo Gustavo Law. In this edition, support comes via the Fomento CultSP Public Notice, which selects projects with proven artistic relevance, educational impact, and potential to strengthen the cultural and creative ecosystem of São Paulo.
The Secretariat of Culture, Creative Economy, and Industry reiterates its commitment to policies that foster innovation, diversity, and sustainability in the sector. Our goal is a robust cultural ecosystem that generates opportunities for filmmakers and democratizes access to high-quality audiovisual productions for the public.
Secretariat of Culture, Creative Economy, and Industry of the State of São Paulo
To the restless Zita Carvalhosa
Spcine is once again proud to partner with Kinoforum – São Paulo International Short Film Festival, now in its 36th edition and a benchmark in promoting short films and independent cinema.
In this edition, we celebrate the life and legacy of the beloved Zita Carvalhosa, founder of the festival and one of the greatest influences in Brazilian audiovisual media. With her generous and tireless vision, Zita was responsible for forming audiences, revealing talents, and building bridges for audiovisual projects and professionals.
Her work shaped policies, inspired new generations, and was essential in the creation of Spcine, becoming a great ally of the company.
Zita's passion for cinema will continue to be a beacon for those who believe in the transformative power of audiovisual media.
Long live Kinoforum. Long live Zita!
Lyara Oliveira
President of Spcine
Short Films as a Gateway
Due to their creative freedom, narrative diversity, and production agility, short films continue to be fertile ground for audiovisual creation. In its many forms, this concise format allows for the testing of ideas, the affirmation of languages, and the emergence of voices that challenge, expand, and reimagine ways of seeing and narrating the world.
Sesc recognizes short films as a strategic autonomous field for strengthening cinematic language and cultural diversity. By favoring access for filmmakers with different backgrounds and contexts, this modality contributes to the aesthetic and political renewal of cinema. Often marginalized by commercial circuits, these films find in Kinoforum – São Paulo International Short Film Festival – a legitimate space for circulation, visibility, and dialogue.
A partner of Kinoforum since its first edition, SESC reaffirms, through its continuous support, its commitment to the appreciation of audiovisual media as an artistic language, educational tool, and cultural mediation. The joint production with the Festival expands the presence of cinema in the institution, stimulating shared experiences, critical training, and exchanges between audiences, works, and filmmakers.
In this journey, it is with gratitude and recognition that we salute the career of Zita Carvalhosa, creator and driving force behind Kinoforum, whose unique contribution to film culture remains a benchmark and inspiration in Brazil. The best way to celebrate her memory is to ensure the continuity and strengthening of the festival she helped build — a living space for creation, encounter, and permanent renewal of the audiovisual arts.
In times of profound change — in the ways we conceive, narrate, and relate to stories and images — the conciseness of the short film paradoxically reveals itself as a space for expansion: from the urgencies that take shape to the possibility of a more accessible and plural cinema. In the year in which the festival celebrates its 36th edition, the institution reiterates its commitment to short films as an opening for the creation and projection of diverse narratives and imaginaries.
Luiz Deoclecio Massaro Galina
Director of Sesc São Paulo
Commitment to Audiovisual Language
Now in its 36th edition, Kinoforum – São Paulo International Short Film Festival affirms its importance as one of the main venues for screening, reflection, and circulation of short films in Brazil and worldwide. With long-standing sponsorship from Itaú Unibanco, the partnership reaffirms Itaú Cultural's commitment to promoting audiovisual language, which is present in various areas of the institution's activities.
This year, six short films selected by the Kinoforum curators, which bring up contemporary and plural themes, are part of a special exhibition on the Itaú Cultural Play platform – itauculturalplay.com.br – with online screening from August 21 to September 7. The streaming platform currently brings together 450 titles from across the country, with an emphasis on Brazilian short films.
The incentive for audiovisual production, in its creative and formative power, enables us to expand the formation of audiences that are increasingly committed to society and the future.
Itaú Cultural
Create and Feel Without Barriers
A short film fits into fifteen minutes; the freedom that feeds it does not. A historic achievement in harmony between the two, Kinoforum is a showcase for frames that pulsate with boldness: intense, experimental, without asking permission.
It is this same impulse that drives Prudence to exchange taboos for frank conversation and responsible pleasure. If the festival provides a stage for those who film at risk, we are here to remind you that feeling is also an act of authorship and expression — with consent and care, but also with courage and curiosity.
Between fiction and documentary, animation and video art, Kinoforum promotes narratives from generations that create according to these values. Under the light of the projector, in the darkness of the cinema and with goosebumps, we celebrate stories that, instead of sameness and convergence, choose their own script.
In this 36th edition — Prudence's first, the one we will never forget — may each session be an invitation to expand boundaries: of the screen, of the skin, of the many ways to create and feel freely.
Prudence
