Elias leads fundraising, business development and distribution at urucu. Brazilian born Elias Ribeiro has worked internationally since 1999. A resident in South Africa for a decade, he launched Urucu, a production company dedicated to making authentic and thought-provoking content in 2011. Urucu’s films have won awards at Sundance to Locarno, Durban, Rio and Beijing. They have sold worldwide to theatrical distributors, broadcasters such as SABC, Arte, ZDF, Mnet; and SVOD platforms such as Netflix and HBO. His projects have attracted financing from private equity to Regional and National funding bodies as well as tax incentives globally. In 2015 Ribeiro co-founded Realness African Screenwriters Residency, an incubator that has developed 30 audiovisual projects in over 16 countries in Africa to date. He served a jury member for funds like Hubert Bals and as a mentor in multiple labs across the globe for emerging producers. His most successful film, Inxeba (The Wound) was shortlisted for an Oscar after winning 6 SAFTAS. He is often a speaker in Industry events and helmed in 2018 the Cape Town International Film Market Program. He is an Advisory board member to screenworlds.org and the Ladima Foundation and consults on various film-related businesses in Africa.
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