Brazil took a significant step toward democratizing access to its cultural heritage on Saturday as President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Culture Minister Margareth Menezes officially launched Tela Brasil, the country’s first free, public federal streaming platform. The launch ceremony took place at Rio2C 2026, held at the Cidade das Artes in Rio de Janeiro, and also included the signing of a Technical Cooperation Agreement between the Ministry of Culture (MinC) and the state communications company Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC).
The platform debuts with a catalog of 555 Brazilian audiovisual works spanning over a century of national production — from 1910 to 2025 — including 267 short films, 139 feature films, 85 medium-length films and TV movies, and 64 serialized productions. Among the titles are 19 films that have represented Brazil in the Oscar race, along with children’s content, musicals, historical records, and works recognized at both domestic and international festivals.
“Tela Brasil represents a fundamental step forward in democratizing access to Brazilian audiovisual production. We are ensuring that the population has free access to our cultural output, honoring the diversity, memory, and creative power of this country,”
– Minister Menezes.
A Century of Brazilian Cinema in One Place
The inaugural catalog draws from works financed by the Audiovisual Sectoral Fund (FSA) and archives from institutions within the MinC system, including the Cinemateca Brasileira, the Centro Técnico Audiovisual (CTAv), Funarte, and the Fundação Cultural Palmares. The selection spans different formats, historical periods, regions, and cultural expressions, with an emphasis on Black and Indigenous cinema, films directed by women, and content addressing memory, environmental sustainability, climate justice, and Brazilian cultural identities.
The catalog features some of the most celebrated works in Brazilian film history, including Glauber Rocha’s Black God, White Devil, Land in Anguish, Barravento, and O Pátio; Suzana Amaral’s The Hour of the Star; Cacá Diegues’ Xica da Silva; Walter Salles’ Central Station; Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s City of God; Hector Babenco’s Carandiru; and Marcelo Gomes’ Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures, among many others. Documentary highlights include Silvio Tendler’s Jango and The JK Years, as well as internationally acclaimed titles such as Boy and the World, Waste Land, and Isle of Flowers — voted the greatest Brazilian short film of all time by the Brazilian Association of Film Critics (Abraccine).
“Tela Brasil brings together, in a single free and public space, more than a century of Brazilian audiovisual production. It is a platform that preserves the memory of our cinema, expands the population’s access to culture, and strengthens the circulation of works that help tell the story, diversity, and identity of Brazil,”
– Joelma Gonzaga, the Ministry of Culture’s Secretary for Audiovisual Affairs.
Built on Public Technology
The platform was developed by the Center of Excellence in Social Technologies at the Federal University of Alagoas (NEES/UFAL), mobilizing around 80 professionals — including researchers, developers, technicians, students, and fellows from public universities across different regions of Brazil. Infrastructure and cloud hosting are provided by Serpro, the federal data processing service, which also handles integration with the Gov.br authentication system and ensures compliance with Brazil’s General Data Protection Law (LGPD).
Tela Brasil was designed to operate without advertisements, subscription fees, or behavioral tracking for commercial purposes. The platform will be accessible at telabrasil.cultura.gov.br, requiring a Gov.br account login. While currently available only as a web version, Android and iOS apps are expected to follow within 30 days of the official launch.
On the accessibility front, more than 300 works already feature audio description, descriptive subtitles, and Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) translation. The interface was built in accordance with the international WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility guidelines.
TV Brasil Partnership Adds 3,000 Hours of Content
The cooperation agreement signed during the launch will progressively integrate TV Brasil’s archive into the platform, adding over 150 titles and approximately 3,000 hours of additional content. Among the programs slated for inclusion are Sem Censura, a long-running interview and debate show; Samba na Gamboa, celebrating samba music and culture; and historic series such as children’s program A, B, Z do Ziraldo, A Arte do Artista, and classic episodes of Caminhos da Reportagem and Observatório da Imprensa.
“This partnership will bring a substantial portion of the memory of Brazilian public broadcasting to the Tela Brasil streaming system. It is the marriage of the Ministry of Culture with TV Brasil, generating a great deal of free, accessible, and quality content for all Brazilians,”
– Antonia Pellegrino, president of EBC.
Beyond individual use, the content will also be available for non-commercial public screenings in institutional, cultural, and educational settings — positioning Tela Brasil as a resource for schools, libraries, and cultural spaces nationwide.
Source: Gov, Tela Brasil
