City of God
It wasn't long after the Lumiere brothers' invention of creating moving pictures in 1895 that film came to Brazil, in the form of an exhibition in Rio de Janeiro.
And it was the short film that came first with the likes of Os Capadócios da Cidade Nova and O Comprador de Ratos in 1908.
But at this time the movie industry was more of an individuals personal desire to go out and shoot a film rather than it being a way to make money.
It was only around this time that the number of cinemas was starting to slowly grow, due to the power supply becoming more dependable. Documentary movies were very popular at the time and Brazilian cinema was slowly producing fiction movies.
By the thirties the Brazilian film industry had begun to grow producing masterpieces of the silent era such as Limite, although it was poorly received at the time, and Ganga Bruta.
Carmen Miranda's movie work was gaining her recognition on a more worldwide stage and she went on to be of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood.
By the forties the popularity of cinemas continued to grow and this decade also saw the birth of production company Cinematográfica Vera Cruz. They saw that American movies had become very poular in the country and began to replicate them.
This highly commercialised movies led to Hollywood style studios springing up in Brazil in a bid to compete.
While the French New Wave was sweeping the rest of the movie world it was Cinema Novo that had gripped Brazil.
The movies looked more closely at Brazilian poverty and filmmaker such as Glauber Rocha, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Carlos Diegues and Joaquim Pedro de Andrade were all included in the movement.
However this freedom to highlight political views disappeared by the mid sixties after the Brazilian coup d'etat sending many of those involved in the Cinema Novo movement into hiding.
But it's the nineties has seen the Brazilian film industry become more recognised on a world scale with Oscar nominations for the likes of O Quatrilho, Four Days in September and Central Station.
But in recent years there has been one movie that well and truly caught the attention of the movie world and that was City of God.
The film was an adaptation of Paulo Lins' novel of the same name that was released in 1997. The book was based on a true story of the war between Knockout Ned and Li'l Zé broke out in the slums of Rio De Janeiro.
The film was a critical success as and, along with the release of Amores Perros, marked a new era in Latin American filmmaking.
It went on to be nominated for four Oscars, including Best Director for Fernando Meirelles, however it was not make the Best Foreign language Film final five finalists.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw