Brazil has won the Copa America Femenina and in the process has qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France in 2019 (for the 8th consecutive time) and the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament in Tokyo in 2020. Brazil played seven games in the Copa America , won seven, scoring 31 goals and conceding just two.
Chile has taken the second spot for the World Cup, but will have a play off with an African nation for a spot at the Tokyo Olympics.
Two Brazilian directors will have their films screened in the official section of this year’s Festival de Cannes
Carlos Diegues, who has had three films screen in competition at Cannes, will receive a special screening and the world premiere of his latest film “O Grande Circo Místico” (The Great Mystical Circus – photo). In 2012 Diegues’was chair of the Caméra d’or jury.
Sao Paulo born, LA based director Joe Penna, better known to his You Tube followers as Mystery Guitar Man, is to get a special midnight screening of his first feature, the thriller “Arctic” which stars Mads Mikkelsen, who headlined NBC’s Hannibal series.
Joe Penna
If you are planning to follow Brazil at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, for which Brazil was the first team to qualify, they have been drawn in Group E with Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia.
For the group stage the dates for the Brazil diary are:
Sunday, 17 June 2018
Brazil x Switzerland – Rostov-on-Don – Rostov Arena (21.00 /18.00)
Friday, 22 June 2018
Brazil x Costa Rica – Saint Petersburg – Saint Petersburg Stadium (15.00 / 12.00)
Wednesday, 27 June 2018
Serbia x Brazil – Moscow – Spartak Stadium (21.00 / 18.00)
The kick-off time listed is first the local time in Russia followed by the UTC/GMT time.
You can follow the 2018 World Cup at our sister site World Cup: The Guide
LATAM Airline will launch the first route connecting Israel and Latin America with a new flight from Tel Aviv to Santiago (Chile), via São Paulo (Brazil), as of December. There will be three weekly flights by Boeing 787 aircraft offering 217 economy seats and 30 in premium business.
For 2018 the airline has announced a further 14 international routes that include flights to Rome from São, Paulo, which began in March as well as new operations to Las Vegas (June), Boston (July), Lisbon, and from Fortaleza, in the Brazilian northeast, to Orlando, Florida.
The results of Rio’s Carnival Parade in 2018 were:
Grande Rio and Imperio Serrano are relegated while Viradouro has been promoted to parade amongst the elite samba school of Rio on 3 and 4 March 2019.
Based on the results of the last six carnivals (2013-2018), the League of Samba Schools (LIESA) ranks the top ten samba schools in Rio de Janeiro as:
[Schools score 20 points for a win, 15 for 2nd, 12 for 3rd, 10 for 4th, 8 for 5th, 6 for 6th, 4 for 7th, 3 for 8th, 2 for 9th and 1 for 10th]
As we countdown to carnival in Rio the main samba schools, that make up the Grupo Especial, will parade on the nights of Sunday, 11 February and Monday, 12 February.
13 schools will parade in 2018, that is one more than normal after no school was relegated in 2017 and Império Serrano were promoted. It is expected that two schools will be relegated this year. For a full description of the parade visit our sister site, Rio:The Guide, or CLICK HERE
Following the draw by the League of Samba School (LIESA), seven schools will parade on Sunday, 11 February and six on Monday, 12 February. The order (and approximate start time) is:
Sunday, 11 February
Monday, 12 February
The titles and rough theme of each samba school for 2018 – and many are likely to be political in content – are:
Sunday, 11 February
Monday, 12 February
Amaszonas Paraguay, a subsidiary of the Bolivian operator Amaszonas, has added two new Brazilian destinations to its route map this week, with the carrier launching flights to-and-from Asuncion (ASU) to Rio de Janeiro Galeao (GIG) and Sao Paulo Viracopos (VCP).
Fights to Rio are flown three times weekly, while Sao Paulo is served four times weekly.
The one-hour flight between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo is again the busiest airline route in the Americas, new research by Routesonline has found.
More than four million people travelled the 378 km between São Paulo Congonhas (CGH) and Rio de Janeiro’s Santos Dumont Airport (SDU) over the past 12 months, putting it comfortably at number one in the rankings.
With an average of 110 flights per day – or one every 13 minutes – the short hop connects São Paulo with Rio de Janeiro. The route is served by GOL Linhas Aereas, LATAM Airlines Brasil and Avianca Brasil, with the three airlines having a 42 percent, 40 percent and 18 percent capacity share of the market respectively. The average base fare for the journey is $93.
Routesonline’s research used OAG’s Schedules Analyser to identify the top 200 routes in North and South America by capacity from 1 November 2016 to 31 October 2017. The routes were then ranked by passenger figures using data provided by Sabre Airline Solutions over the same time period.
The second busiest route in the Americas connects the capital of Mexico with the tourist hotspot of Cancún. Almost 3.7 million passengers travelled the 1,294 km between Mexico City Juarez (MEX) and Cancun (CUN), with the average cost of a ticket $72.
Brazilian director Daniel Rezende is visiting the UK to promote the release of his first feature, Bingo: The King of the Mornings, a hit in Brazil that is to be released of 15 December in the UK. The film has been submitted by Brazil for both the Academy Awards and the BAFTAS.
Although the film is Rezende’s first feature, the director already has an impressive CV which includes his Academy Award nominated and BAFTA winning editing work on the Brazilian cult classic, City of God (2002), as well as his work on Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life (2011), Robocop (2014), Blindness (2008) and The Motorcycle Diaries (2004).
Bingo tells the true story of Augusto (Vladimir Brichta), an irreverent Brazilian actor who was searching for his place in the spotlight. Augusto was an actor hungry for a place in the spotlight, following in the footsteps of his mother, a respected stage artist in the 1950’s. While starring in soft porn and TV soap operas, Augusto finally got the chance to conquer the crowds when he was cast as “BINGO”, a clown who hosted a children’s colourful morning TV programme. With his irreverent humour and natural talent, the show became a huge hit in Brazil, but a clause in his contract forbade him from revealing his true identity behind the mask. A Brazilian Stig!
In the process of finding stardom Augusto became an anonymous celebrity. With his makeup on, he brought happiness to children across Brazil, but not to his own son, Gabriel, that saw his father distancing himself from him as he went in search of recognition.
Filled with irony and humour and an exaggerated pop look from the backstage universe of the Brazilian 80’s television, Bingo: The King of the Mornings tells the incredible and surreal story of a man that whilst looking for his artistic value, ends up finding his personal decay.
“It is not easy to define Bingo by picking out only one matter,” explains Rezende. “Essentially it is about a personal search for recognition, about a man’s quest to find his place in the spotlight that ends up hidden behind a mask. There’s something very contemporary in this topic, we all want to be recognised by our parents, by our children, by our friends. But it is also a film about the relationship between father and son. The protagonist is in such a crazy hunt to be recognised as an artist that he ends up distancing himself from his son. He is on TV, making a lot of children laugh every day, but not his own.”
The final leg of Brasil Junino’s European road show is being held in London. The event is a cultural exhibition that seeks to promote Brazil’s famous Festas Juninas, or June Festivals, and is being hosted by the Embassy of Brazil in London from 27 May to 4 June.
Several headline acts are already confirmed as part of the line-up, including Zeu Azevedo, a legendary Brazilian musician, composer and saxophonist. The festival also features live dance recitals, or quadrilhas juninas, by Si Bobiá a Gente Pimba, from Brasilia and Raio de Sol, from Recife. There will also be a series of live street performances in central London, to help promote the initiative.
The 10-day programme – which includes stage performances, presentations, traditional costumes, as well as an exhibition profiling the June festivals – gives the British publc an exclusive opportunity to experience these uniquely Brazilian festivities, which normally occur throughout June each year.
“These festivals offer a rare and insightful snapshot of the Brazilian people, set to a tantalizing backdrop of colour and sound”, explains Edilane Oliveira, Brasil Junino’s curator. “Brazilians famously love to party, but the Festas Juninas, or June Festivals, are a fascinating expression of Brazilian culture and symbolism – it is a story that needs to be told. Brasil Junino is our way of shining a light on our coveted festivities and getting Londoners to join in the fun”, she added.
Brasil Junino has already received critical acclaim in Brazil, after it received more than 500,000 visitors in Rio de Janeiro, during Rio 2016. Now in London, having already visited Lisbon, Madrid and Rome, the organisers hope not only to promote tourism and culture in Brazil, but also effectively kindle relationships between Brazil and the UK.
Brasil Junino opens on 27 May and runs to 4 June at the Embassy of Brazil in London, 14-16 Cockspur St, St. James’s, London SW1Y 5BL. It is open to the public from 1pm to 7pm daily and entry is free. A full list of the program and further information is available at www.brasiljunino.com.br
