Information for Festival Guests

Welcome to Rio de Janeiro. Welcome to the host city for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic games, a city that has already hosted the final of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, a tournament considered by many to be the best ever. Festival do Rio, Rio de Janeiro’s international film festival, warmly welcomes its’ guests and the fans of the moving image to what is Brazil and South America’s largest film festival and audiovisual industry event.

The backdrop to the festival is the city of Rio de Janeiro, unquestionably one of the world’s most beautiful, which has been recognised as such by UNESCO. It is a city surrounded by mountains and water that together have dictated just how Rio has spread and evolved since first being ‘discovered’ by Europeans in the early 16th century. Those explorers believed that they had come across the mouth of a great river, hence the name River of January (Rio de Janeiro). The mouth of the river turned out to be Guanabara Bay, the bay over which the festival headquarters in Armazém da Utopia overlooks. In 2015, Rio de Janeiro is celebrating the 450 anniversary of its birth as a city.

Many of Rio´s attractions are already global household names and include Corcovado Mountain, and its iconic statue of Christ the Redeemer; Sugar Loaf Mountain; Copacabana and Ipanema beaches; and the Maracana Stadium, which first opened for the 1950 World Cup and this year once again hosted World Cup games, including the final. The new Maracana will also host the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2016 Olympic Games.

Then there are the many less visible attractions of Rio, these include bossa nova, samba, and many other musical forms, as well as during Festival do Rio and the rest of the year, the very best of Brazilian cinema and television.

Festival Hospitality  | Windsor Atlântica | Windsor Leme 

Most of the festival’s official international guests will be staying at the Windsor Atlântica (on the corner of Avenida Atlântica and Avenida Princesa Isabel) and the Windsor Leme (on the corner of Avenida Atlântica and Rua Anchieta).

The Windsor Atlântica is located on Copacabana Beach and towers 39 floors above the beach, the tallest building on Copacabana Beach, making it a landmark in its own right. The building first opened in 1976 as Le Méridien. Technically the hotel is located on Leme Beach that is a natural extension of Copacabana Beach, yet an area that retains its own distinct village like characteristics.

The full address of the hotel is:

Windsor Atlântica – Avenida Atlântica, 1020 – Copacabana – Rio de Janeiro

Tel: (55-21) 2195 7800 / www.windsorhoteis.com

Totally remodelled, refurbished and modernised, the Windsor Atlântica is one of Rio’s newer five star hotels and offers 545 modern guest rooms, making it one of the largest hotels in the city. Despite the name, Windsor is one of Brazil's leading hotel brands with 12 hotels in Rio.

Festival guests will find plenty of options in terms of food and drink, both in the hotel and within a short walking distance of it. The hotel offers its guests a number of restaurants including The View and the highly rated Italian, Alloro, plus bars and 24-hour room service that between them offer a wide range of flavours to tempt just about any palate.

The Windsor Leme, which will also house festival guests, is located close by, just a couple of hundred metres along the beach from the Windsor Atlântica. For many years it was known as the Leme Othon and since being taken over by the Windsor group has been undergoing a total refurbishment and offers 195 modern rooms over 17 floors.

The full address of the hotel is:

Windsor Leme – Avenida Atlântica, 656 – Copacabana – Rio de Janeiro

Tel: (55-21) 2195 5400 / www.windsorhoteis.com

Like the Windsor Atlântica, guests at the Windsor Leme will find plenty of options in terms of food and drink, both in the hotel and within a short walking distance of it, plus bars and 24-hour room service.

The beach is just across the street from both hotels where guests can take a dip in the sea off Copacabana or Leme, or stroll for a few minutes to the west and go to Ipanema. The hotels have a full beach service of sun loungers, parasols, towels and a member of staff to watch over belongings.

For those who prefer the pool, there are two options inside the Windsor Atlântica, located on the 4th and the 39th floor. There is also a spa, with 600m2 of pure welfare and the best treatments, a beauty salon, Pilate’s studio, and fitness centre.

Life in Rio is a Beach

Copacabana, on which the Windsor Atlântica and Windsor Leme are located, is arguably the world’s most famous strip of sand that stretches for two miles (3.4km), down to the Sofitel Rio Hotel and the Copacabana Fort in the west (to the right as you look out over the ocean from the hotels. To the left (and east) Leme Beach spreads for a further half a mile (1 km).

The beach, which was a focal point of the FIFA World Cup and Fan Fest celebrations, as well as the global media coverage, will become even more famous in 2016 as it will host a number of Olympic activities including the beach volleyball. Besides the Windsor Atlântica, other landmarks along the beach include the Copacabana Palace, a hotel that opened in 1923 and which was the backdrop to Thornton Freelands’ Flying Down to Rio with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Dolores del Rio. No festival guest should miss the opportunity of having a drink around the hotel’s famous pool. A hotel that has hosted more celebrities over the years than virtually any other in the world, including a who’s who of the film world, and which during the 2013 festival hosted the amfAR gala dinner with Goldie Hawn.

The beach will also be home to Rio's new museum of image and sound (MIS - Museu da imagem e do Som) that is due open in 2016.

Leme and Rio de Janeiro

Festival guests can take advantage of the village feel of Leme that is reflected by the shops and stores found in the street behind the Windsor Atlântica and Windsor Leme (Avenida Gustavo Sampaio). They include drug stores, dry-cleaners, shoe repairs, a post office (Correios), and even a supermarket (Zona Sul) which has its own pizzeria hidden inside.

Guests at both hotels have plenty of options in terms of food and drink both in the hotels and within a short walking distance. There are a number of beach bars close by in both directions, including several Rio favourites such as La Fiorentina, a traditional meeting point for intellectuals, journalists and artists for over 50 years (www.lafiorentina.com.br) and Sindicato do Leme (www.sindicatodochopprj.com.br.) Restaurants near by include Marius Degustare (www.marius.com.br), one of Rio's most famous barbecue houses, Marius also has a big seafood restaurant; the Italian Da Brambini (www.dabrambini.com.br); Taberna Atlântica, Joaquina, Martinez, Fabrique; and in the road behind the hotel, Galeria 1618 (www.galeria1618.com.br) and Shirley, one of the city´s first and most famous Spanish and seafood restaurants.

For those looking for a late night snack, the legendary Cervantes (www.restaurantecervantes.com.br), which is open until five in the morning, is located close by at Avenida Prado Junior, 355; that is the road that runs parallel to the west of Avenida Princesa Isabel. Cervantes sits three blocks back from the beach close to the corner with Rua Barata Ribeiro, where there is also another entrance at number 7. Any cab driver in Rio will know Cervantes.

For shopaholics attending the festival, the Rio Sul Shopping Centre (www.riosul.com.br), one of the largest in South America with over 400 stores, is just a short walk or a few minutes taxi ride away. The centre is also home to a number of restaurants and fast food outlets, as well a multiplex cinema. Another option is the fashionable and stylish Shopping Leblon (www.shoppingleblon.com.br), which is a 15-minute taxi ride away, beyond Ipanema, close to the screenings at Cinépolis Lagoon on the Lagoa. The Lagoon (www.lagoon.com.br) itself has an excellent selection of charming bars and restaurants.