"We create, produce, build & sell. Everything in-house."
The House
IHC (International House of Cinema) was founded in October 2012, in Curitiba, by Lucas Estevan Soares. The original idea was for IHC to be a film school. That is where the name came from: the studio would be home, a place where films get made and where you learn to make them. The school never materialized due to lack of resources, but the name stuck.
IHC grew from the catalog of LS Filmes, Lucas’s previous production company, with more than a dozen shorts filmed across 27 countries. The intention was to keep producing independent cinema in Curitiba. But demand brought everything together: clients wanted screenwriting, directing, producing, branding, visual identity, photography, website, marketing. And IHC delivered. Without realizing, it was becoming a venture studio.
The first headquarters was a large warehouse in Curitiba, renovated with help from the family. Too big to operate only as a studio, it also became a cultural events space. Between 2014 and 2015, it hosted "Lage Chic": a monthly series of performances with artists from Parana on the rooftop. The project promoted the musicians while building the networking the studio still lacked. Fixed costs were high, and every new idea became a project, every project became a way to generate income to keep the space and the team standing. That cycle lasted years, until the first major projects started coming in.
Rhaissa Gonçalves joined as producer in 2014 and became co-founder the following year. Between 2014 and 2018, IHC was literally home for both of them: Lucas and Rhaissa lived inside the studio. IHC was home. Together, they consolidated a way of working where nothing leaves the house unfinished: screenwriting, directing, producing, soundtrack, color grading, distribution and marketing, all under one roof. In 2018, they opened a second headquarters in Miami. In 2021, they launched their own distribution company.
The Method
The studio’s breadth was not planned. It was built over more than a decade operating on every front. IHC delivers every stage of a work in-house: from screenplay to distribution, from soundtrack to marketing. Over time, that logic extended to other areas. Technology, digital platforms, and in-house ventures began to be developed with the same method. Nothing leaves the house unfinished.
Over the years, IHC has signed work for global brands such as Dolby, Tinder, Knight Foundation, Citroën, Adobe, Volvo Penta, and ELECOM (Japan), and for public institutions like Miami DDA (United States), Invest Parana, EMATER, and Copel (Brazil). More than 200 projects delivered across 30 countries.
Neon Heart
In 2019, IHC made the biggest bet in its history. With cash reserves for the first time, Lucas and Rhaissa decided together to self-fund the studio’s first feature film. Without sponsors, without tax incentives, without any public funding, Lucas directed Neon Heart entirely with IHC’s own money.
The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022, where it was called "a great example of the new Brazilian popular cinema." It went on to screen in over 150 theaters across Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, and became the first Brazilian film mixed in Dolby Atmos 9.1. Awards followed in Houston, Moscow, and Brazil. Neon Heart was the condensation of the method: everything made in-house, from screenplay to distribution.
Today
Today, IHC operates as a Creative Venture Studio across four fronts: film, music, technology, and in-house creative ventures. Original films and series, or produced for brands. Composition and production of original soundtracks. Platforms and software, internal to the studio and as products of its own. Ventures born inside IHC that go to market with their own identity. Two headquarters (Curitiba and Miami), small team, big intent. Lucas directs. Rhaissa produces. And the studio keeps creating, producing, building, and selling. Everything in-house.
