The Festival de Gramado, the country's biggest commercial launching ground for Brazilian and Latin American films, is currently in full swing in the southernmost state of Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul. The child prostitution-themed Anjos do Sol (which was released in 60 theaters across Brazil today) is apparently one of the favorites for several awards. Over the next few months we'll be seeing a lot more of the Gramado winners in local cinemas.

Hot on the heels of Gramado will be the first annual FIICAV (Feira Internacional da Indústria do Cinema e Audiovisual) in São Paulo. I spoke with festival director Christina Castello today about her attempts to create a Brazilian film market, and I must say I'm very interested to see how the event will turn out. (I'll be writing about FIICAV more in-depth, both in this blog and in a dispatch for indieWIRE.)

And then slightly overlapping with FIICAV will be the 17th São Paulo International Short Film Festival, one of my favorite events on the SP calendar, from August 24 to September 2. Not only does the festival provide a rare opportunity to see some incredible short films, but the audiences contain some of the nicest, most enthusiastic film-lovers I've met in a long time.