CONVIDADOS 2024 - Brasil
Elias Ribeiro
Based in South Africa for over a decade, Elias Ribeiro is a brazilian-born producer. In 2011, he founded Urucu, a production company dedicated to making authentic and thought-provoking content. Urucu’s films have won awards from festivals such as Sundance, BFI London, Durban, Rio and Beijing. The most successful film out of the 7 features he has produced, Inxeba, was shortlisted for an Oscar after winning 6 SAFTAS and 29 international awards. A leader in his field, he is often a speaker and moderator in Industry events and helmed in 2018 the Cape Town International Film Market & Industry Program. Elias was recently appointed by the Locarno Film Festival as a regional manager of the Southern Africa Industry Academy. He is an advisory board member to screenworlds.org and ladima.africa.
Realness Institute
In 2015, the Realness African Screenwriters Residency program was launched as an incubator that developed 30 audiovisual projects across more than 16 African countries. The initiative has since evolved into the Realness Institute, which now hosts various training programs within the creative industry, helping writers, producers, directors, programmers, sales and distribution professionals, episodic content creators, and development executives. The Realness Institute aims to inspire a new wave of African cinema, telling stories from the continent with an honest and proudly African perspective. Since the residency in 2015, the Realness Institute has launched the following programs: Creative Producer Indaba (2019), Episodic Lab (2020), Development Executive Traineeship (2020), Southern Africa-Locarno Industry Academy (2021) e o AuthenticA Series Lab (2022).
Urucu Media
Urucu is a production company based in South Africa. Brazilian Producer Elias Ribeiro founded the company in 2011 and was joined by South African Producer Cait Pansegrouw in 2015. Both EAVE alumni, they have worked across Africa for the past decade. Their work has traveled to Sundance, Berlinale and Venice, to name a few. In 2017 their film The Wound, by John Trengove, made it to the Oscars shortlist. It sold over 100 territories between VoD (Netflix), Pay TV (HBO/Mnet), Public Broadcasters (Arte/ZDF) and won 28 international awards. Specialising in international co-pros, their work has been funded by private and public sources globally. They also co-founded Realness Institute, a talent development initiative, which offers opportunities to African talent.