Your film is finished. What now?
Dona Olga decides where your film goes, in what order and why, and handles every submission. You get a written festival strategy and monthly tracking reports, not a spreadsheet of random festivals.
Festival strategy, communications and production. We work with films from all over Brazil: shorts, features, documentaries, animation and series.
We get films seen. Strategy, submissions and tracking across national and international festival circuits.
We create our own work. Writing, directing and development of fiction, animation and series.
We look after public presence. Press, content and social media for films and cultural projects.
Services and pricing
What you can hireTwo ways to work together, from a one-off assessment to full management of a film’s festival run. The figures below are reference prices and vary with the format of the work and the size of the planned circuit.
Festival strategy assessment
For filmmakers finishing a film who don’t yet know where to start.
- Analysis of the film’s profile, subject and potential
- A prioritised list of 20 to 30 festivals, with reasoning
- A submission calendar covering the next 12 months
- A defined premiere strategy, national and international
- A one-hour debrief meeting
Full festival management
For filmmakers who want the film out there without managing deadlines, fees and platforms.
The monthly fee depends on the length and volume contracted, and drops proportionally on longer contracts. The final figure is set out in the proposal, after the first conversation.
- Everything included in the assessment
- 6 to 10 submissions a month, national and international, depending on the contract
- Forms completed and submitted in Portuguese and English
- Management of deadlines, fees, materials and submission platforms
- Premiere policy and eligibility tracking
- Monthly report of submissions, selections and results
- Strategy reviewed every quarter
- Renewable contract, with the fee revised on renewal
* Reference price for short films. Features and series require more extensive research and cost somewhat more, agreed case by case and always fixed before work begins. The two-instalment option applies to both formats.
Festival entry fees are not included in the monthly fee and are paid directly by the filmmaker. An estimated budget for those fees is part of the assessment.
How it works
From first contact to first red carpetFirst conversation
A free 30-minute meeting to understand the film, the stage it is at and what you want out of its festival run.
Assessment
We analyse the film’s profile, subject, running time, cast, origin and premiere status, and cross it against festival calendars and past programming.
Written strategy
You receive a document with the prioritised festivals, the order of submission, the premiere strategy and an estimated budget for entry fees.
Execution and reporting
We handle the submissions and the follow-up. Every month you get a report on what was submitted, what came back and what is next.
The roster, in numbers
2026 resultsSubmitting a film to a festival is easy. The hard part is choosing where, in what order and with what expectation. These are the figures for the roster Dona Olga handles, shorts and features together, for the year 2026 alone.
World premiere at IFFI, in Goa
One of the features on the Dona Olga roster had its world premiere at the International Film Festival of India, the oldest international film festival in Asia, founded in 1952, and the only one in South Asia accredited by FIAPF in the competitive feature film category.
We publish the acceptance rate alongside the volume because that ratio is the figure that matters: festival circulation is a job of volume, deadlines and persistence, not luck. A rate between 3% and 6% is normal on the circuit for independent work without an A-list festival premiere. Every figure on this page refers to 2026 only.
Where the idea came from
Caru Roelis, founder and filmmakerDona Olga was born out of a practical problem. Taking her own short film A Gente Nasce Só de Mãe to more than thirty festivals in Brazil and abroad, Caru Roelis found that the hard part is not submitting the film. It is knowing where to submit, in what order, and what you lose by getting that order wrong.
The company exists so that other filmmakers don’t have to walk that road alone.
Awards
- Best DirectorMostra Sesc de Cinema, 2018 · Caru Roelis
- Best SoundMostra Sesc de Cinema, 2018 · Hilen Campos
- Best Actress2ª Mostra Lugar de Mulher é no Cinema, 2018 · Edilaine Duarte
- 2018Mostra Sesc de CinemaBest Director and Best SoundBrazil
- 20182ª Mostra Lugar de Mulher é no CinemaBest ActressBrazil
- 2018Los Angeles CinefestUnited States
- 2018VII Festival Primavera do Cine en VigoSpain
- 201822º FAM — Florianópolis Audiovisual MercosulMercosur Shorts programmeBrazil
- 2018XII Curta Canoa — Festival Latino-Americano de Cinema de Canoa QuebradaBrazil
- 201812º Festival Audiovisual ComuniCurtas — UEPBBrazil
- 201816º Curta Santos — Festival de Cinema de SantosBrazil
- 2018Festcine — Poços de CaldasBrazil
- 2018VI Festival de Cinema de Chapada dos GuimarãesTudo Sobre Mulheres programmeBrazil
- 20184ª Mostra de Cinema FeministaBrazil
- 2018Festival Mimoso de CinemaBrazil
- 2018Cine ParaísoBrazil
- 2018Short Movie ClubBrazil
- 201912º Festival Visões PeriféricasBrazil
- 201918º Goiânia Mostra CurtasBrazil
- 201917ª Mostra de Audiovisual Universitário e Independente da América LatinaBrazil
- 2024Audiovisual Licensing Call — LPGSecel-MT · licensingBrazil
Selections and awards listed up to 2024. The film’s full run passed thirty festivals between 2018 and 2019.
The production arm
Films and creditsCreating and developing our own work is the company’s second front: projects structured and submitted in-house to public calls, tax-incentive schemes and public funds. Dona Olga was directly involved in every film below, in creation, writing, directing or story development, on its own productions and in partnership with other companies.
Free resources
To use on your ownTwo tools we use internally and have made public, for anyone who wants to understand the circuit before hiring anything: a reference list and a quick decision test.
FSA/BRDE festival classification guide
The 181 festivals and equivalent events from 45 countries listed in Annex II of the FSA/BRDE public call, organised by classification tier (Special, AA, A, B and C). It tells you which selections score points in Brazilian funding applications and which do not. In Portuguese.
Download the guideFestival Radar
Ten questions to answer online before paying an entry fee. The test tells you whether to submit now, research further or hold back, and returns a list of what you still need to check.
Take the testFrequently asked questions
Before you get in touchDo you guarantee my film will be selected?
No, and be wary of anyone who does. Festival programming is a third party’s decision and depends on factors nobody controls, including that year’s line-up. What Dona Olga guarantees is that the film is submitted to the right festivals, at the right moment, with the right materials, which is what actually improves the odds of selection.
My film is still in post-production. Is it too early?
Quite the opposite: it is the best moment. Many circulation decisions have to be taken before the film is finished, including premiere policy, submission deadlines and the format of deliverables. Films that come looking for a strategy after already circulating arrive with fewer options left.
How long before the first results come in?
Festivals take two to six months between the submission deadline and the announcement of the line-up, and the larger ones usually take longer. That means a three-month contract covers the submission period but will probably end before most answers arrive. If the aim is to follow the film through to results, six months is the reasonable minimum and twelve corresponds to a full circulation cycle.
How much does it cost to submit a film to festivals?
Entry fees range from free to around US$ 80 per submission at international festivals. A well-planned year-long circuit for a short film usually runs between R$ 2,000 and R$ 6,000 in fees alone, depending on how ambitious the strategy is. The assessment includes that estimated budget.
Do you work with films from outside Mato Grosso?
Yes. Dona Olga is based in Alta Floresta but works remotely with filmmakers all over Brazil. Most of the work happens through online meetings, shared documents and written reports.
What is a premiere policy and why does it matter?
Many festivals require exclusivity: they only programme films that have not yet premiered in a given territory, or that are not available online. One badly timed screening can rule out the bigger festivals for the rest of the film’s life. Ordering submissions so that those premiere statuses are preserved is one of the most important parts of the strategy.
Do you produce films as well?
Yes. Dona Olga creates and develops its own original work. The Bruce Spike universe is the main project under way. It is precisely that experience on the filmmaking side that underpins the festival strategy work.
Talk about your film
First conversation is freeFill in the form and the conversation starts on WhatsApp with the context of your film already there. The first meeting, thirty minutes, is free and carries no obligation: it is there to work out whether it makes sense for us to work together.
If you prefer, write straight to us by email with a short synopsis and the film’s stage of completion.