Brazilian International Film Festival (BiFF) showcases the best in new cinema from new and emerging independent Brazilian filmmakers from Brazil, United States and around the world. It provides the movie-loving public with access to bold, daring and innovative Brazilian cinema in the heart of Times Square, a few blocks away from New York City's Little Brazil. Our mission is to promote and to stimulate creation and innovation in the film industry and provide support, opportunities for new voices that otherwise might not have been heard. BiFF believes that independent films broaden the palette of cinema, seeding the global culture with new ideas, kindling awareness and fostering activism.
BiFF draws inspiration starting with the classic film Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro) from 1959 through Brazil's Cinema Novo (New Cinema) genre and movement that was formed in response to class and racial unrest in Brazil and United States during the 1960s. A major figure of the movement Carlos Diegues, director of the classic film Bye Bye Brasil, said, “In Cinema Novo, expressive forms are necessarily personal and original without formal dogmas.” The festival aims to continue this tradition by promoting creative freedom and screen inclusive, open films and embrace diverse ideas and art forms in filmmaking by a new generation of Brazilian filmmakers whose voices defy categorizing along conventional lines.
The objectives and goals of BIFF are to:
- promote and encourage awareness, appreciation and understanding of the art of independent Brazilian cinema;
- draw attention to and raise the profile of independent Brazilian filmmaking with the aim of contributing towards the development of cinema;
- showcase new talented Brazilian filmmakers in the United States, Brazil and around the world;
- attract media and press coverage in New York City and Brazil;
- encourage community involvement and have community discussions to discuss Brazilian cinema;
- become a catalyst of urban renewal by encouraging them to spend at Brazilian merchants and restaurants especially in Little Brazil and around midtown Manhattan; and
- continue the tradition of Cinema Novo filmmaking by promoting creative freedom and screen inclusive, open films that portray societal issues, diverse ideas and art forms.
The largest Latin American country, both in geographic size and population, by far, Brazil is the home of an important national cinema, which has received less recognition in North America and other parts of the world than it has deserved, until the recent international success of Central do Brasil (Central Station) and Cidade de Deus (City of God).
Brazilian Americans are an important part of the New York community as well as the growing number of Brazilian tourists that now ranks as the third largest group of international visitors totaling almost one million tourists in 2015, based on data from NYC & Company.
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BiFF is produced by Creative Ammo Inc./FILM @ Downtown Urban Arts Festival.