Following the concept of a window, the festival intends to present a faithful image of the paths taken by cinema, stimulating artistic expression and personal films, and bringing to the public a cinema that breaks expectations. The festival’s original impulse was to establish a forum for exchanges between the production made in Pernambuco and external images.
Until 2008, the city of Recife did not yet have an international festival. We believe in the importance of Recife having its own festival open to the world and its own look with a comprehensive selection presented to the public of what is done today nationally and internationally.
In this context, the Janela Internacional de Cinema do Recife, created by filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho and producer Emilie Lesclaux, has been placing the cinema screen as a window to other places in Brazil and abroad for more than a decade.
The exhibition circuit consists of Cinema São Luiz, a film palace built in 1952 and restored in 2008 (997 seats), one of the most beautiful classic theaters in the world today, the Cinema da Fundação (200 seats) and the Cinema do Museu ( 160). The festival has an international dimension, bringing together participants from Brazil and around the world with activities concentrated in the metropolitan region of Recife.