The simple task of writing this text forces me to review, each year, a little of BrLab's trajectory. When we started to build this platform in 2011, it would have been impossible to size the amount of challenges that we would have to face in order to continuously perform and finance the activities that make up the BrLab. Words fail me to explain the vast number of ups and downs and battles fought to ensure BrLab's uninterrupted financing, amidst not only the country’s storms, but also the capabilities and possibilities of our partners and sponsors, changing every year. 

Throughout this trajectory, despite the efforts needed to carry out the project’s activities, we were able to establish an efficient space for cooperation, testing experiences and investing enough work and thinking to find a format that would also meet the expectations of different partners and the interests of a public that went beyond the laboratory's core activities. Throughout the eight editions, we were able to promote several meetings, learning and teaching experiences that contributed not only to the 92 projects that have already participated in BrLab and the related professionals, but also to the laboratory itself, which has also improved as a training space that effectively qualifies the professionals, contemplating the fundamental yearnings of filmmakers and producers while promoting activities and market meetings. 

It also took a few years for us to learn how to connect with a broader audience without distancing ourselves from our vocation, and today we are able to celebrate the continued success of BrPlot, an open program composed of a series of tables and debates open to the public in general, and with the participation of renowned writers and authors from Brazil and the world. This activity is carried out through a very valuable partnership with Thiago Dottori, who signs the program, and also with ABRA, which since last year has been an institutional supporter of BrLab in an increasingly fruitful collaboration. 

For the first time, we will have a Rough Cut Lab, in partnership with the international platform 3 Puertos Cine, and will offer four films that have participated in previous editions of BrLab or 3 Puertos Cine the chance to work with important Latin American filmmakers and worldwide. This activity represents an opportunity for project development spaces such as ours to follow certain projects more closely, in an environment of trust and training, also leading us to think about and understand our own reach. 

This year, we finally had the opportunity to launch an editorial label, thanks to the sponsorship of BRDE, Ancine and the Audiovisual Sector Fund, through a partnership with the Audiovisual Secretariat of the Ministry of Culture, which brings a series of interviews with one of the main scriptwriting consultants of Latin American cinema. "Eliseo em 100 perguntas" is our first publication, a meeting of Julio Rojas with Eliseo Altunaga, who since 2012 has been collaborating and advising projects under development, in addition to being a frequent guest of BrLab and one of the most generous professionals with whom we have had the privilege of working with. 

In the midst of financial inconstancy and institutional weaknesses, one aspect that has always been solid, and is increasingly getting stronger, is the affective network of cooperation between renowned professionals in the international market and Brazilian and foreign institutions. Year after year, they meet at BrLab to celebrate cinema and share knowledge in creative ways, focusing on the production of new films and training of professionals for an increasingly fundamental sector for a country’s culture and economy. This network, which is certainly BrLab's largest asset, also contributes to the integration of the Brazilian audiovisual industry with the cinematography and markets of our geographical environment, encompassing Latin American countries, Europe and the whole world, further strengthening the BrLab initiative as an international market event that has already become traditional in a metropolis as cosmopolitan as São Paulo. 

Within this network, we highlight in 2018 the new partnership with RT Features, fundamental in this especially difficult year for the full implementation of our program’s activities. It is one of the few companies that are sensitive and attentive to the importance of the continuous existence of this space as an event of international relevance, which turns it into a structuring part of this network, formed this year mainly by the team of tutors, professionals from Brazil and abroad, supporting institutions and companies, as well as our entire production team and Klaxon Cultura Audiovisual. 

We hope that the future will enable us to continue to finance and promote the BrLab, and thus allow us to continue to learn and share our knowledge, serving as a platform for the promotion of projects and professionals in the region, and resulting in the establishment of international professional cooperation networks that extrapolate our own initiative.