RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Rio2C’s wide-ranging 2026 program is set to feature top Brazilian creative industry speakers, such as helmers Wagner de Assis, Esmir Filho and Carlos Saldanha, journalist and writer Caco Barcellos, writer Thalita Rebouças, doc maker Ricardo Calil and comedian João Vicente de Castro.
This year’s Rio2C will take place May 26-31 at Rio de Janeiro’s Cidade de Artes, with the conference featuring some 2,000 speakers talking on panels or giving keynotes addressing the hot-button topics faced by creative industries.
Director, producer and screenwriter Wagner de Assis, founder of production company Cinética, will speak at the session Faith Moves Mountains and Engages Audiences. Panelists will discuss local productions with religious and spiritual themes.
Assis has helmed 10 features, most of them about Spiritism, in particularly Kardecist Spiritism. Allan Kardec codified his doctrine in 19th-century France but Brazil traditionally has the largest number of Kardecist Spiritism followers and sympathizers in the world.
Assis’ features have a captive, niche audience, and some have made it to the mainstream. Fox’s 2010 released “Nosso Lar” (“Astral City: A Spiritual Journey”) was a local blockbuster, selling over 4 million tickets. “Nosso Lar 2: Os Mensageiros,” released in 2024 by Disney’s Star, also found strong box office traction with a total admission of 1.6 million tickets.
