Brazil commission pacts with Ile de France

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazil's Filme Rio-Rio Film Commission has sealed a broad-based partnership pact with the Paris-region Ile de France Film Commission.The cooperation agreement was inked Thursday at Rio's Casa Franca-Brasil Foundation, an imposing colonial-era mansion in downtown Rio, and comes as Rio, and Brazil at large, is attracting huge interest as a market, shoot locale and potential co-production partner."This ceremony gives us the chance to strengthen our organizations' relationship within a wonderful context," said FR-RFC prexy Steve Solot."Rio has the attention of the whole world now, thanks to events such as the forthcoming World Soccer Cup and the Olympic Games, a trend which now also holds true for the audiovisual sector," he added.Major U.S. productions - "Fast Five," most notably "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1" -- have partly shot in the city of Rio or - think 20th Century Fox toon pic "Rio" - been largely set there.The FR-RFC - Ile de France deal will see both commissions analyzing and advising on potential shoots or co-prods presented by producers, said Ile de France Film Commission exec director Olivier-Rene Veillon.Pact will also seek to further Rio-Paris producer relationships, foreseeably through co-prod workshops, Veillon added. France and Brazil signed a new co-production treaty in 2010 that eased co-production criteria and takes in TV. French film board CNC and Brazil's cinema agency, Ancine, joined forces to organize a Franco-Brazilian co-production workshop at Cannes this year. Also at Cannes, the FR-RFC inked a collaboration agreement with Film London.The Rio-London pact attempts to promote co-productions and the exchange of best practice film and TV expertise as London and Rio build up to the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com