Permits and safety

Always crowded with visitors and often a stage for film productions, Rio and Iguazu are probably the only destinations that do require some bureaucracy done beforehand. Previous permits issued for filming inside the national parks areas and at tourism attractions like Iguazu Falls, Corcovado or Sugar Loaf are issued with no costs for journalism or educational films, but they do charge a fee for cinema, entertainment, commercial or corporate film productions. Permit is issued in 2 weeks via email with the national park office manager.

In practice, a permit is not needed for filming at beaches like Ipanema, Copacabana and urban locations. But Rio’s government film agency Rio Filme do ask (more like a suggestion, not a requirement) for intl production companies to apply for a municipality permit for filming in public areas. Although this is not mandatory, it sure does help both: the film crew gets backed up by someone from the municipality aware of their steps in town (and we’ve seen them send a civil police car to be around our crew filming in crowded urban locations) and Rio municipality keeps track of where there are film crews working in town, occasionally helping with traffic organization and safety for film productions that may required temporary street blockage.

RioFilme permit is free and issue in 3 days by filling an application in Rio Filme website, click here.