Fabiano Gullane and Caio Gullane talk about tribute to the producer that will take place at Expocine 2025
When we think of Brazilian producers, it is impossible to leave the Gullane Out of the conversation. About 30 years old, the producer carries with her the chancellor of great public successes and recent critics. Besides classics like Carandiru and What time is she coming back?, the current moment is also very promising. In the last year, for example, the producer took Destination Motel for the competition of Cannes, launched Noah’s Ark, considered the main Brazilian animation, and the series Senna It became the largest series ever made in South America. To consolidate, the documentary Milton Bituca Nascimento (Gullane+) It was critical success in 2025. These are just some of the predicates that led to Gullane to be the recipient of EXPOCINE 25 in the production category.
Recognized as one of the largest producers of Brazilian audiovisual, since its foundation in 1996, the Gullane it has been responsible for more than 100 long series, besides bringing in the curriculum more than 500 awards and selections at festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Sundance. In order to celebrate the moment of the producer, Fabiano Gullane and Caio Gullane have gone over the whole success story, recalling the difficulties, perseverance and the importance of union of all the links in the audiovisual chain, besides highlighting the importance of the recognition given in the Expocine 25, and also the relevance of the event to the market.
Following the interviews with the honored Expocine, the Display Portal talked with the duo, who made an analysis of the market as a whole, addressing even the importance of internationalization of brazilian works and the need for streaming regulation. It is worth noting that, while some questions were asked by our writing team, part of the interview was withdrawn from podcast ♪ I hate Cynema ♪, which is exhibiting episodes from a partnership of the group AdoroCinema with Tonks, conglomerate holding the rights of Expocine and Display Portal.
"When we chose cinema, it was a bold choice because we were in the early 1990s, with a huge recession for Brazilian cinematography and Embrafilm extinction, so we had to insist a lot. Soon after, our friends and friends who also made movies were interested in doing TV commercials and the commercial had a very strong market at that time. By our nature, we never cared and insisted on doing what we call content today, which was making films, and that was a very right choice and we have been working for 30 years with it," Caio summed up about the beginning of the producer.
The brothers' connection with the cinema and audiovisual began when they were still young and Fabiano started working with dubbing and sound editing, while Caio worked as an actor and clown performing. The audiovisuals quickly brightened the eyes of the duo, who joined the film college at FAAP. Due to the recession mentioned earlier, the beginning was not easy. However, with perseverance, Fabiano and Caio found in the production of short films a way to follow their dreams.
"We've been through all kinds of difficulty and trial. We had to double the bet that we really wanted to move on with this career and we had a lot of resilience because there were many 'no's' and closed doors, but we never abandoned the dream of living with cinema. In view of this, I wanted to leave a first message so that they wouldn't give up, because it's really hard, and a second one because in college everyone wants to drive and there's no one left for other functions. The audiovisual is not only direction and there are many beginnings such as, for example, assembler, director of photography, making soundtracks. There are many beautiful careers in cinema. Besides, anyone's first steps are in short films. You don't want to take a shortcut and it's important to try, miss, hit and have ambition with your short. Before making our first long, we made 15 or 16 shorts, and that's where you have a learning without so much demand," said Fabiano.
The mishaps, even, helped the Gullane to know different universes and acquire experiences that resulted in a quite diverse catalog with animations, series and long, for example. Caio also pointed out that the producer followed a path of entrepreneurship, but always prioritizing creative and artistic productions. The executive said that the Gullane not "embark" in any project that does not believe artistically, but mainly does not embrace projects that do not have "the finish line" of the film well defined. In this way, the Gullane always keeps an eye on the movements and directions of the market.
"We stopped being film warriors to become successful entrepreneurs in the audiovisual sector. This shows the maturity of the Brazilian market and independent markets around the world, which are increasingly appropriating their domestic markets, and each country trying to export their audiovisuals more and more. So together with the artistic quality and relevance of the works, it has to have an organization to be able to compete professionally and at a high level", Fabiano added, already introducing the importance of internationalization.
About 80% of the productions consumed worldwide are in the English language. This obviously hinders the internationalization of Brazilian works, since these and productions in other languages from all over the world fight for a portion of only 20% of the market. In view of this scenario, Gullane it has as one of its missions an attentive look to the market to be able to bring their ideas, messages and reflections to the world, and not just to Brazil.
These messages and reflections, moreover, have an importance to safeguard memories and history through audiovisual. For the duo, cinema is also a place of education and culture, going far beyond a piece of entertainment and helping to ennoble and form opinions of the public as a whole. Carandiru, is an example of this role of audiovisual.
"With cinema and audiovisual we review, guard and safeguard the memory and pride of things and stories that we live. 'Carandiru' is an example that perhaps many generations don't even know what it is, but it was one of the most violent and overcrowded prisons in the world, where there was one of the most serious massacres in the world, and we have this story to tell and form the memory. People will know that this happened and 'Carandiru' is a practical example of the importance and relevance of cinema and audiovisual in any country or place in the world", Fabiano reflected.
During the conversation, Fabiano also pointed out that as important as producing is to know how to market and distribute the films. In the early years of the Gullane, the executive had the perception that the market lacked to give due importance to distribution and marketing, and seeing this gap the producer was entering the market to occupy this space and tread its own path of success.
"We already had the momentum to produce and decided to join with at least one attempt to go to the festivals, try a distribution and a path where the film gets ready and born into the world. In 'Seven Head Beetle', for example, we started with nothing and added a co-production of Italy, Sony to distribute, aggregate festivals and went to Toronto and many other festivals, and the film became a success. Gullane was born this way and we entered the cinema for the place we saw that needed effort and did not have people with this intensity and artistic intention to produce and there a path was created ", said.
Addressing the market as a whole, Caio also stated that although Brazil has one of the most celebrated public policies for audiovisual in recent decades, it is necessary to make adjustments, especially in relation to streaming regulation. He pointed out that several countries have been through this process and it is essential that Brazil also limits rules to be followed by generators of international content.
"We are living an interesting moment in Brazil and on one hand we have the policies of encouragement and incentive, and on the other we have the platforms looking at thirsty Brazil, because it is a continental country and with a very large audience. Discussions between these parts of the sector are not productive because we are the same sector and at Gullane we will make both independent films and series, as well as for platforms. This is a universal trend, we have some projects going on and we are present in this discussion that is very important to us. We have rules and laws that our country places and we work with them, but it is important that institutions and generators of international content also adapt to the rules," he said.
Finally, having as a reference a cinema that they attended in São Simão, in the interior of São Paulo, when they were young, Caio and Fabiano also revealed the desire to act as exhibitionists in the future. For them, in a small town, for example, cinema can have a mixed use and serve as theater, for debates and even to make an auditorium for events that help in cultural dissemination.
"The audiovisual is a set and we participate in the creation, financing, production, launch, promotion, and we are very willing to participate in the exhibition as well. The dark room and the big screen, with all due respect to the other screens that we also worked a lot, but the cinema screen and the experience of being focused only on that story has nothing like it. We were going to the Oasis Cine in St. Simon and we have that will. Cinema is a place to ritualize in the dark room and a meeting place. It is an activity that is complete when it arrives in the public and we understand cinema as a place of education and culture as well," Fabiano said before reflecting on the role of leading role Brazil should assume in the market for production and distribution. "Brazil is one of the world's biggest protagonists in audiovisual consumption. It's number two on Netflix, number two on HBO and we're in the top five or eight movie box office in the world. We generate a very large wealth as a consumer market and we are protagonists in this market, but we are tired of not being protagonists in the market producer and distributor", he concluded.
EXPOCINE 25
Being the Gullane the great tribute of the EXPOCINE 25 in the production segment, the producer¿s own history has already begun showing that success would be a matter of time. Even in the face of difficulties, Seven-Headed Beak, the first film signed by Gullane, has already shown itself to be ahead of its time by the simple fact that already in the early 2000s explore the possibility of international co-production with professionals from other countries. In addition, the long took several national and international awards, showing that there was much potential in what was being born.
Today, even with a successful trajectory, the Gullane brothers still see difficulties within the independent audiovisual market, ranging from bureaucratic issues to the lack of predictability of our public policies, going through the constant challenge of attracting the Brazilian public to watch national works in cinemas. However, due to perseverance, optimism and resilience in following a dream, the producer was raised to the level of being honored in the biggest event facing the cinematographic market in Latin America.
In the present day, Brazil has consolidated itself as one of the world's leading audiovisual consumer markets, and in the view of the duo, the Expocine it appears exactly as an essential space for this huge market to be discussed.
"How do we move forward as a large consumer market? How to attract more audiences to the cinemas? How can we further increase our audience on streaming platforms and the digital universe? How do we create successful intellectual properties that remain under the control of national industry? Expocine is a great opportunity from our market to analyze our past, plan and act in the present and build and sophisticate our future," said Fabiano and Caio.
The brothers also made a point of exalting the strategic importance of Expocine by approaching the entire audiovisual chain (production, distribution and display), and also highlighted the crucial role that the event plays in defending the cinema window.
"For Gullane, being honored by Expocine 2025 is an honor without words. We were very moved, happy and satisfied with this recognition. They are almost 30 years dedicated to Brazilian audiovisual, in a work that has gone through several fronts, such as: Develop our industry, stories and talents; collaborate in the creation of production mechanisms; collaborate in the structuring of public policy for regulating and promoting the audiovisual market in Brazil; conquer the Brazilian market, attracting and building partnerships with distributors, televisions and streaming platforms; always seeking the insertion of the Brazilian audiovisual work in the main international festivals, in coproductions and in the competitive international sales market, besides so many other assignments and challenges. All this trajectory is recognized in this tribute. On behalf of Deborah Ivanov, Caio Gullane, Fabiano Gullane and all our collaborators, directors, directors, co-producers, writers, actress
Finally, the partners also stressed that the Gullane it remains very committed to the brazilian cinema, investing more and more in the stories that Brazil wants to see and in the films that Brazil wants to tell, and that the focus is now on major projects that have ambition both for the national market, as well as international. The catalog for the future of the producer has films by important directors such as Cao Hamburger, Roberto Santucci, Laís Bodanzky, Karim Ainouz, Viviane Ferreira, Sandra Kogut, Sabrina Fidalgo, Sérgio Machado, among others and, therefore, the Gullane it aims to increasingly consolidate itself as an important creator and audiovisual producer, combining artistic quality with commercial relevance, always prioritizing authentically brazilian stories that have the potential to win global audiences.
"We also want to highlight the growth of Gullane+, our distribution area led by Deborah Ivanov. We are very convinced that, at this first moment of Gullane+ in the market, our main focus is the Brazilian content distributed in Brazil and in the world, with projects such as 'Rio do Desire' by Sérgio Machado, 'Milton Bituca Nascimento', Flavia Moraes, '3 Obás de Xangô', Sérgio Machado, 'Para Vigo Me Voy', by Lírio Ferreira and Karen Harley, 'O Projeto', by Sabrina Fidalgo and many others. We believe that Brazil has all the conditions to be a global protagonist in the audiovisual industry, and Gullane wants to be on the frontline of this transformation," they closed Caio and Fabiano.
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