The Festival do Rio is an international film festival in Rio de Janeiro. The festival was the result of a 1999 merger of two previous film festivals, the Rio Cine Festival and the Mostra Banco Nacional de Cinema.[1] Founded in 1984 and 1988 respectively, the two festivals were held within a period of two months between each other.[1] [2] To avoid overloading the city with two film festivals within a short period of time, the two events were eventually merged.[2]