For the fifth consecutive year, Tarcisio Vidigal and Antonio Urano are in Cannes with Grupo Novo de Cinema e TV to sell on the latest crop of Brazilian features and shorts. The expectations for the sales company have grown considerably of late, a direct reflection of the consolidation of the Brazilian production sector which, after a catastrophic start to the decade, has shown its ability to recuperate. The recuperation is visible, not only in the growing number and diversity of productions, but the ever increasing share Brazilian films hold at its national box office.

To win a small fraction of the international audience is the next target, something Vidigal recognises will take "between five and ten years, but we are making advances. Central Station winning in Berlin, the nomination of Four Days in September for the Oscar, and now Foolish Heart in competition, have helped re-establish Brazil cinema on the international map."

Grupo Novo is based again at its traditional stand in the Palais (26-01). "It's a great location," Vidigal jokes. "Nice and near the bar!"

As well as an extensive catalogue of over 60 Brazilian classics, Grupo Novo is handling some of the highlights from 1997, such as Sergio Rezende's epic The Battle of Canudos (La Guerra de Canudos), the highest-grossing Brazilian film last year. The film, based on a true incident at the turn of the century, covers the conflict between the armed forces of the Republic against a community united by its religious leader, Antonio Conselheiro.

Curiously, two other films brought to Cannes by Grupo Novo also deal with conflicts. Sergio Silva's Anahy de las Misiones has as its backdrop a bloody confrontation as seen through the eyes of a "mother of courage" who tries to keep her four children (who have four different fathers) together. October Moon (Lua de Outubro), the first co-production from the Mercosul, focuses on a captain who has fallen in love with the daughter of his political enemy during conflicts in the 1920s.

On the other side of the coin, newcomer Rosane Svartman's How To Be Single in Rio (Como Ser Solteiro no Rio), is an entertaining comedy set against the meeting and misunderstandings of teens in present-day Rio de Janeiro. In World Cup year, stories about football are the theme of Ugo Georgetti's Boleiros, in which players and referees talk good humouredly about aspects of the sport that is a national passion of Brazilians.

The celebrated visit of Orson Welles to Brazil in 1942, to make It's All True, is the theme of All Is Brazil by Rogerio Sganzerla, one of Brazil's more experimental filmmakers. The third film by the director about Welles' visit, All is Brazil features interviews with Welles' friends and colleagues, including Carmen Miranda and Grande Otelo, and the Americans Robert Wise, Richard Wilson and HG Wells.

Grupo Novo's screening slate also includes Historias de Amor (Loving Rio de Janeiro), a selection of five popular shorts screened in Brazilian festivals last year.