Anonymous Content chairman-CEO Steve Golin, producer of The Revenant” and “Spotlight,” “Homeland” co-creator Howard Gordon and “Jessica Jones” showrunner Melissa Rosenberg form part of the keynote speaker lineup at the sixth edition of the Rio Content Market, Latin America’s biggest TV event.

A mass training push to get the Brazilian industry into international markets, and dynamize Latin American TV business, Rio Content Market offers a combination of lectures, content exhibition by keynote speakers, case studies, one-to-one meetings and pitching sessions.

Event runs March 9-11 at the Hotel Windsor of Barra de Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, with a warm-up day on Tuesday, March 8.

For the first time in RCM history, the sixth edition will bring together executives from top global OTT buyers: Amazon Studios, Hulu and Netflix.

Tara Sorensen, head of kids’ programming at Amazon Studios, will analyze the international TV landscape and Amazon’s approach to kids and family TV content; Philip Matthys, Hulu’s head of business affairs for original series, will present its business model and commissioning guidelines for original content for the streaming service; Erik Barmack, Netflix vice president for local originals, will talk about strategies to invest on international original projects.

This year, RCM will also especially focus on female creators, a hot-button issue. Interviewed by Brazilian producer and screenwriter Deborah Calla, Melissa Rosenberg will talk about the development and production process of a successful series and the challenges of creating a complex super-heroine such as “Jessica Jones” in a culture dominated by male superheroes.

Georgia Costa Araujo, deputy national board member of Brazilian independent TV producers association BRAVI and a RCM deviser and stager, will moderate a panel that includes Debora Ivanov, director of Brazilian national film agency Ancine; writer-directors Anna Muylaert, Petra Costa and Rosane Svartman; and author Vivian de Oliveira. They will address the existence of a “feminine way of working and the presentation of gender-based impressions in the global society and in Brazilian film and TV.”

Also, a panel entitled “Changing Media to Empower Women and Girls” will explore new research findings, from nonprofit org the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, on how media impacts moviegoers in Brazil.

“It is time to think how changes in society impact the audiovisual market,” said Carla Esmeralda, Rio Content Market curator.

Organizers have invited Rhys Ernst, co-producer of Amazon Studios’ “Transparent,” to present the panel “Matter of Gender,” on the impact of attraction on the audience and how transgender people are currently portrayed in drama.

RCM launched in 2011, just after the approval of Brazil’s Law 12.485, which revolutionized Brazilian TV production indie sector, obliging pay TV operators to air 3.5 hours of local content per week.

In only five editions, RCM has become one of the largest audiovisual content exhibition and business events in the world. Organizers estimate 2016 attendance at 3,000-plus.

“We have conquered a place in the heart of the most important narrative creators in this business,” Carla Esmeralda said.

For example, Steve Golin, exec producer of Oscar-awarded movies “The Revenant” and “Spotlight” and recent Golden Globe-winning TV series “Mr. Robot,” will share his over 30 years’ experience in the TV and film business in the opening keynote of RCM 2016.

Also at the opening day, Olivier Dumont, managing director at eOne Family and eOne Licensing, will present a case study of hit British animated preschool show “Peppa Pig” and how to embed the distribution strategy at the development stage, with Sao Paulo-based Celia Catunda, co-founder of TV Pinguim studio.

On March 10, Emmy-winning showrunner Howard Gordon (“Homeland,” “Tyrant,” “24,” “The X-Files,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) will show how to identify impactful stories and how to write, produce and adapt works for TV series, highlighting the import of formats that cross borders; Peter Iacono, Lionsgate president of Intl. TV and Digital Distribution, will talk about strategies and business models for content in the digital era.

George Strompolos, CEO at Fullscreen, is set to explain the foundation and trajectory of the global media company, its business model and how to develop strategies to optimize the creation and distribution of online content.

A pillar of RCM is one-to-one meetings, an opportunity the market offers indie producers to present international players with their series, TV shows, documentaries, reality shows and, starting this year, feature-length projects.

Among attending local distributors are Downtown, in charge of blockbusters “Meu Passado me Condenda” and ” ‘Till Luck Do Us Part”; Europa Filmes (Paolo Sorrentino’s “Great Beauty”); Vitrine (“Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho”); Tucuman (“Sand Dollars”); Elo Company (“The Boy and the World”); and H20 Film (“Vai que Cola”).

A total of 18 dramas, documentary and kids’ program projects have been selected to form part of the RCM 2016 pitching sessions, where producers have seven minutes to present a project and another seven for a debate with the panel. Film and TV director Victor Lopes and business developer Mark Greenspan will oversee the sessions, whose audience includes representatives from international and Brazilian TV channels.

Fonte: Variety