RioMarket 2026 Kicks Off Oct. 1 With TikTok Workshop and Global App Launch

RioMarket, the business section of the Rio International Film Festival, runs Oct. 1-11 with a first-time partnership with TikTok and expanded online one-on-one business meetings.

The event takes place in a warehouse in Rio's port area renovated for the 2016 Summer Olympics. It will gather executives and talent from the local and international film industry, with a strong presence of Asian countries, and will launch an app designed to connect film festival markets around the world.

RioMarket held its first online one-on-one business meetings in 2025, and they proved successful, Walkiria Barbosa, the Rio Film Festival's executive director and head of international marketing, told Variety.

"We ran a pilot last year, and we are going to expand it this year. During the pandemic, we learned that it is possible to do business online," she said. "We received applications from companies in several countries, including film and television production companies, streaming platforms, distributors, and television networks."

TikTok will hold a three-day workshop for 40 content creators invited from several Brazilian states. The program aims to raise production quality through technical sessions on directing, lighting, editing, screenwriting, format development and filming.

"The goal is to raise the quality of entertainment content production on TikTok by connecting creators with experienced audiovisual professionals. We believe Festival do Rio, which brings together the leading players in Brazil's entertainment industry, is the ideal setting to launch this new model," Luciana Galastri, head of entertainment partnerships at TikTok in Latin America, told Variety.

Barbosa stressed the strong presence of Asian countries at RioMarket 2026, particularly China, India and South Korea, as well as Russia. Brazilian companies have increasingly done business with players from these countries in recent years while maintaining traditional partnerships in North and Latin America and Europe, she said.

From China, one highlight is a lecture by Spike Liu, president of China Year Technology, on the use of AI in content creation and production processes in the audiovisual sector.

RioMarket will also use the gathering of international players for the soft launch of its app, tentatively named Connecting Screens. The platform is inspired by Cinando, the online networking and business platform run by Cannes' Marché du Film. It will facilitate business meetings and provide information about projects, Pedro Souza, president of the Financing Committee of the Audiovisual Industry and Commerce Federation (FICA), told Variety.

"While Cinando resembles Wikipedia, our app will be a sort of Tinder, Linkedin and Wikipedia. The idea is to match sellers and buyers of the audiovisual industry," Souza said.

Ilda Santiago, Rio Fest's executive director of programming and international projects, highlighted the presence of participants from the Generation Program, the festival's initiative using films to foster education for children and teenagers in Rio.

"The market feeds the festival program, and the program, in turn, feeds the market. Today, no major film festival can afford to operate without a strong industry market," Santiago said.

One panel will bring together two of the world's most critically acclaimed directors: Iran's Asghar Farhadi, of "Parallel Tales" (2026), "A Separation" (2011) and "About Elly" (2009), and Brazil's Walter Salles, of "I'm Still Here" (2024), "Central Station" (1998) and "The Motorcycle Diaries" (2004).

Another panel covers the LatAm Content Meeting, the Brazilian version of Sunny Side of the Doc. Founder Fernando Dias will brief non-fiction content makers on the next edition, set for September 2027 in São Paulo. Two further panels will present successful cases of international documentary co-productions resulting from deals initiated at the event's first two editions in 2025 and 2026.

Content analyst Gustavo Martínez will host a workshop on his approach to conflict structure in screenplays, based on Newton's Third Law of Motion and aimed at creating points of tension and release.

"We are holding an event on the scale of the markets at the world's leading international film festivals," said Barbosa, who is also president of FICA.

She sees clear room for growth in the Brazilian audiovisual industry. "Our goal is to triple the industry's share of Brazil's GDP over the next five years. It currently stands at 0.6%. We aim to achieve this by strengthening our companies, increasing the number of movie theaters, advancing technological development and expanding exports of Brazilian productions," Barbosa said.