Departing from the theoretical tradition of Marxist critique of Political Economy, the article depicts the objective working conditions of three Brazilian filmmakers in an international environment of film production. Also, by carrying out in-depth interviews with them, we analyse their responses to such conditions. We begin with their experience in Cinéfondation Résidence, a programme attached to the Cannes Film Festival dedicated to the development of a screenplay for a first or second long-feature film. In a second stage, we investigate how these professionals deal, after their stay in Résidence, with the contradictions of a labour market marked by precarity. Our conclusions point out the economic logic of a filmmaker’s residency like Résidence that functions as an intermediary between new talents and the film production market, but an intermediation not devoid of contradictions. Thus, we also expose how filmmakers must reconcile the contingencies of this market with their artistic and personal aims in order to make their films.