CINE ARGENTINO EN BRASIL: INTEGRACIÓN, COOPERACIÓN Y COMPETENCIA

Abstract

The article aims to make a contribution to the growing body of research that addresses film relations between Argentina and Brazil, specifically analyzing the circulation of Ar-gentine cinema in Brazil and emphasizing the importance of cultural policies (national and supranational) that shape exchanges. The analysis is based on the compilation and processing of cultural statistics produced by official sources, from which a characterization of the Brazilian market is made and a panorama is offered on the processes of regional integration that involve both coun-tries (Ibermedia and RECAM ). Then, the presence and performance of Argentine cine-ma in Brazil is analyzed in depth, separately analyzing the Argentine-Brazilian co-productions and the rest of the movies of Argentine nationality, since -as will be ar-gued- these are legally distinct objects. The interest in analyzing relations between both countries is that they are among the 15 largest producers of feature films in the world and are -together with Mexico- the most powerful film industries in Latin America. They have a decades-long track record in terms of regulation and promotion of cinema and a series of co-production and coope-ration agreements that strengthened the integration. From the Argentine perspective, Brazil stands out for two aspects: it represents the second most important international destination for Argentine cinema and, in itself, the Brazilian market is among the ten largest in the world in terms of viewers. Finally, systematically analyzing these rela-tionships is intended to contribute to the understanding of the (new) global becoming of the film industry in the 21st century.