BRAVO Film Festival cancels 2026 edition, plans return next year
The Los Angeles-based BRAVO Film Festival has cancelled its 2026 edition.
Organisers said the event will not take place due to circumstances beyond their control, Deadline reported on 2 October. The statement gave no further detail on those circumstances. It added that preparation will continue with a plan to return next year. The news was confirmed a month before the November period the festival has used in Los Angeles.
The festival was founded in 2008 to present Brazilian cinema in the United States. It is led by founder and executive director Talize Sayegh. Thiago Macêdo Correia serves as creative director, overseeing the artistic choices behind the programme.
BRAVO grew out of the earlier Hollywood Brazilian Film Festival, according to its official history on BRAVO. It is staged in Los Angeles, most recently across November. Its partners include the American Cinematheque, a Los Angeles cinema organisation, the Brazilian Consulate in Los Angeles, Cinema do Brasil and Projeto Paradiso. Partnerships of this kind usually cover venues, institutional support and industry links.
The opening film is central to its identity. Each year BRAVO traditionally screens Brazil's official submission for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars. That is the Academy Award given to a feature made largely in a language other than English, with each country putting forward one title.
In 2024 the opening film was I'm Still Here, directed by Walter Salles. A year later the festival opened with The Secret Agent, directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and starring Wagner Moura. The 2025 edition opened at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles.
That 2025 edition was the festival's 17th. It ran from 19 to 25 October and included a seven-film competition section, as first detailed by TheWrap. Competition sections are the juried part of a festival programme, where selected films play for prizes.
For Los Angeles audiences, this means a pause rather than a farewell. No 2026 dates will be announced. What makes this stand out for regulars is the break in a run that has brought Brazil's Oscar pick to Los Angeles each autumn. The organisers say work is already under way for a return.
