Lula Rides Fan Armies to Brazil Runoff Win, and Its Film Industry Exhales

Lula is Brazil's president again. The leftist incumbent took 51.79% of the runoff vote to beat far-right challenger Flávio Bolsonaro, sealing a fourth term and completing the first second-round comeback in the history of Brazil's democratic elections. The country's electoral authority confirmed the result.

The loss lands on U.S. President Donald Trump, a Bolsonaro ally — and it lands as a relief for Brazil's film industry, which had braced for a decimation of government movie funding modeled on Javier Milei's deep cuts in Argentina. Lula's win also halts Latin America's drift rightward at a moment when France and Spain are staring down the same possibility, and it's a boost for Brazil's environment, social politics and health services.

Fandom did heavy lifting. The day after Lula finished second in the first round, fan accounts for Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Katseye, Demi Lovato, Harry Styles, Katy Perry and Selena Gomez turned their platforms over to his campaign, per Variety's reporting. More than 600 Brazilian fanbase groups backed him before the runoff, according to the Guardian. Lula leaned into it at a rally on São Paulo's Avenida Paulista, where organizers put the crowd above a million: he opened by joking that he couldn't decide between greeting 'comrades' or 'fandoms from all over Brazil.'

Social media was supposed to be his weak spot. Lula's Workers' Party accused Meta's Instagram of throttling the reach and sound of its posts, along with Lula's profile and search visibility, and on Oct. 19 Brazil's Superior Electoral Court gave Meta 24 hours to prove it wasn't favoring one candidate in its feeds. Meta denied bias but acknowledged some Lula campaign ads went offline temporarily because of technical errors. In parallel, federal deputy André Janones launched a WhatsApp broadcast channel called 'Lula's Army' built around a 90-minute Lula interview, which ballooned past 10 million members by runoff time.

Filmmakers weren't spectators either. Guillermo del Toro, Pedro Almodóvar, Mark Ruffalo, Tilda Swinton and Javier Bardem joined Brazilian stars in urging a vote for Lula, flashing the thumb-and-forefinger 'L' sign that Jordan Firstman repeated on stage at the Rio Film Festival in early October. Variety reported from RioMarket how director Marcelo Gomes raised that same sign after an hour-long panel with Rodrigo Santoro — and the room erupted. Two days after the first round, when Bolsonaro led with 47.03% to Lula's 45.16%, Variety described the festival as sunk under a visible veil of grief.

The stakes were enormous for Brazilian cinema, which has been on a tear. Walter Salles' 'I'm Still Here' took the International Feature Oscar, Kleber Mendonça Filho's 'The Secret Agent' racked up a record four Academy Award nominations for a Brazilian film, and Gabriel Mascaro's 'The Blue Trail' won Berlin's Grand Prize in 2025. Accepting his victory, Lula promised government money for healthcare, books and culture. With his fourth mandate secured, Brazil looks set to stay a progressive oasis for pro-film policy — and much of Latin America's industry, which leans on Brazil for co-productions, will share the jubilation and the relief.