Learn Portuguese (Portugal): O filme começa em breve.

Just like in English, Portuguese often uses the present tense to talk about scheduled or near-future events. You could also say vai começar to mean it is going to start, but using the present tense is very common and sounds completely natural here.

How does em breve translate to soon?

The word breve means brief or short. The phrase em breve literally means in brief or in a short time, which is the standard way to say soon or shortly in Portuguese.

Why does começa have a cedilla (the little hook under the c)?

In Portuguese, the letter c followed by an a, o, or u usually makes a hard k sound. Adding the cedilla to make ç changes it to a soft s sound. Without it, the word would be pronounced with a k sound.

Since filme ends in an e, how do I know it is masculine?

Nouns ending in -e can be masculine or feminine in Portuguese. There is no strict rule to guess the gender, so you just have to memorize that it is o filme (masculine) when you learn the vocabulary word.