MUBI Fest runs in São Paulo from September 11 to 13: premieres, talks, live music, and parties curated by the arthouse streaming service, not a Thursday opening and not a national film institute. [1] English-language copy today is Venice. Rio Times, writing for expats, sells a weekend of subtitled international cinema and an audience to match. [1] The distribution fact is the brand on tour.
Wednesday this paper reported that Netflix routed Colombian earthquake aid through a film-worker census, disaster patronage rather than a festival SKU. Keep those files separate. Thursday is a streamer translating its catalog into a live weekend in Brazil, eight days before the city's next pop dates. Sister editions sit in Istanbul from September 4 to 6 and Guadalajara from September 18 to 20. [1] Those are the circuit, not São Paulo news.
Valentina Gómez's Rio Times brief is practical. Tickets and program live at mubifest.com. The format mixes recent festival highlights, director talks, concerts, and late-night programming across São Paulo venues. [1] The 2026 edition lands one week before 5 Seconds of Summer and Helloween and two weeks before the São Paulo Boat Show. [1] For foreigners who do not yet speak Portuguese, Gómez writes, subtitled international cinema makes it one of the easier cultural events in the city. [1] That English-friendly claim is Rio Times, not a charter from Ancine. She also calls it one of the city's most international culture weekends of the month. [1] International, here, means the streamer's curatorial identity made physical, not a ministry list.
MASP's new season, the Bienal do Livro's aftermath, and the spring concert wave already fill September. [1] Gómez calls the festival a networking surface for film, advertising, and tech. Pinheiros and central venues are the pattern. A streamer that sells a hand-picked SKU on phones is now selling a weekend in the street. The city-hopping format, she writes, means São Paulo's edition is programmed to global rather than local standards. [1] That is the tell. A national institute programs for a public. A brand programs a circuit.
The same class of company took six NHL homes onto Prime Video yesterday. Local hockey became a shopping-account add-on. Arthouse cinema, in this version, becomes a three-day live SKU with parties attached. Passes are on mubifest.com. [1] The product is not a public archive. It is a company that hops Istanbul, São Paulo, and Guadalajara in three consecutive weekends and still wants to be read as a film culture weekend for foreigners. Gómez is honest about the audience. The paper should be honest about the owner.
A reader of only Venice will miss São Paulo. A reader of only the subtitle pitch will miss that MUBI is touring Latin America as itself. Festival do Rio, the national showcase, opens October 1. That is another calendar, and not this commission. This one is a streamer's. Dates are September 11 to 13. Thursday is the announcement, not the opening night.
-- LUCIA VEGA, São Paulo