The 12th edition of Euro Connection will take place on 4 and 5 February 2020, during the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. This platform aims to assist partnerships between European producers in the production of short films.
“Serpentarius”, first feature film by director Carlos Conceição, will be part of Viennale's program, to be held from October 24th to November 6th, in Vienna, Austria.
“Serpentarius” by Carlos Conceição, a Portuguese-Angolan co-production, represented by Agência - Portuguese Short Film Agency, had its world premiere at Berlinale Forum and was first exhibited in Portuguese territory at Curtas Vila do Conde where the author was Director in Focus. In the meantime, the film won the Nuove Visione Prize at Sicilia Queer in Italy, the Audience Award at the Burgas Film Festival in Bulgaria and is now selected for Viennale, the most important international film event in Austria as well as one of the most world's oldest and best known German-speaking festivals.
"Serpentarius" will be screened at part of the Viennale Features section, accompanied by films by Pedro Costa, Agnés Varda, Nadav Lapid or the Dardenne brothers. About this Austrian premiere, Viennale's programmer, Nico Marzano, wrote about the film on the event's webpage:
Carlos Conceição's first full length feature "Serpentarius" unfolds before our eyes as an hypnotic journey between memories and premonitory visions, and the idea of voyage as starting point for a personal and collective search. The film and the gaze of Carlos Conceição, a long-time collaborator of João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata, is inextricably rooted in his personal journey, and that of his family, from Angola (where he is originally from) to Portugal. Through undefinable landscapes, haunting mythology and sci-fi ruins, the search for the director's mother and his origins begins. "Serpentarius" progressively takes shape as a cinematic alter ego that speaks of the act of leaving, setting out, exploring. Preoccupations such as colonialism, slavery and the relationship between the land and people who belong to that land are embedded in the idea of a spiritual quest. "Serpentarius" unfolds as an odyssey, an ancestral road movie, suspended between multiple dimensions that take us through the desert, ruins, history, future and all those places of life and death. However the serpentarium is also the place where snakes are bred, it is the job of those who carry them, the constellation from which it's possible to observe the world. As in a long stream of consciousness, "Serpentarius" is a personal and existential reflection relying on associations of ideas and spaces that plays with Proust, with our soul, in a continuous digression where in turn courted by ladies wearing eighteenth-century laces around their necks; passengers in a van or the Three Caravels; gunslingers in the saloons of the Wild West or astronauts looking for another dimension beyond space and time. What are we looking for ? Identity, belonging, tradition, roots represented by a mother left behind and whose absence keeps returning in dreams and memories yet as a physical, palpable and haunting presence.
"Party Day", the first short film by the Portuguese director Sofia Bost, was selected to the international competition of the New York Film Festival (NYFF), that takes place between 27th of September and 13th of October. The film will be screened as part of the International Program 1 - Shorts, described by a mixture of narrative and documentary that showcases bold, new films by emerging and established filmmakers working in international cinema today.
Produced by Uma Pedra no Sapato and promoted international by Agência - Portuguese Short Film Agency, "Party Day" had is international premiere at Semaine de la Critique of the Cannes Film Festival and is national premiere at Curtas Vila do Conde. "Party Day" follows Mena on the birthday of her daughter Clara, and has the participation of actresses Rita Martins, Melissa Matos, Teresa Madruga, Sandra Celas, Mariana Silva, Sara Gonçalves and Fernanda Neves.
The programers of the Shorts section describe the film: "A cash-strapped single mother is pulled into an unresolved family conflict as she struggles to host her daughter’s seventh birthday party. Sofia Bost’s 16mm-shot drama, filled with illuminating performances, renders a complicated depiction of motherhood and the inconsolable grievances inherited by each generation."
“Sol Negro”, the short film by French-Portuguese director Maureen Fazendeiro, will have its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, in Canada, that will take place from September 5th to 15th.
Produced by O Som e a Fúria (Portugal) and Norte Productions (France) and promoted internationally by AGENCIA - Portuguese Short Film Agency, the film confronts images of a solar eclipse day in Lisbon and excerpts from a poem by Henri Michaux, read by French actress Delphine Seyrig.
“Sol Negro” is part of the TIFF's Wavelengths section, an exclusive avant-garde film section that highlights formal innovation and original cinematic expressions in the context of one of the world's largest and busiest film festivals. The programmers define the film on the festival's webpage: "Underscored by French film legend Delphine Seyrig’s evocative recitation of a Henri Michaux poem, Maureen Fazendeiro’s film is a mysterious, multi-textured portrait of eclipse spectators in Portugal".
“Sol negro is my first film totally made in Portugal, the country I came to live in 2014 - says Maureen Fazendeiro - In March 2015, I gathered a small team, borrowed a camera and, using 16mm black and white film leftovers, I filmed the total eclipse of the sun, visible at 67% at the Lisbon's Astronomical Observatory. That day I collected a series of portraits of amazed spectators. When in 2019, I got financed for post-production, I was able to resume the editing interrupted for almost four years. It was about archeology of a film, made from fragments of images and sounds collected over time. I remembered a poem by Henri Michaux that speaks of an imagined country where there is only one sun per month, an event that creates a certain excitement in its inhabitants. ”
After “Motu Maeva”, DocLisboa award-winning documentary, “Sol Negro” is Maureen Fazendeiro's second film, which had its world premiere last July at the Curtas Vila do Conde International Film Festival competition.
"Dogs Barking at Birds" by Leonor Teles, will have its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival
"Dogs Barking at Birds" is the new short film by Portuguese director Leonor Teles, will have its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, that will take place from August 28 to September 7.
The film, selected to the Orizzonti Short Films Competition, portraits the summer days of Vicente and his family, forced to leave their house in downtown Porto, due to real estate speculation.
Produced by Uma Pedra no Sapato and promoted internationally by the AGENCIA – Portuguese Short Film Agency, "Dogs Barking at Birds", was entirely shot in the city of Porto. "It captures a city that is not mine, a place that is unknown to me and does not belong to me. It is nonetheless less personal than the previous films. The connection I created with the family I filmed remains and that seems to be the constant in my work: people and my relationship with them", says the director.
A film commissioned and financed by the Municipality of Porto within the scope of the project Cultura em Expansão.
After “Batrachian’s Ballad” (Golden Bear for Best Short Film at Berlinale 2016), this is the second short film by Leonor Teles, director who debuted at the commercial circuit earlier this year the long “Ashore” - Prix International de la SCAM at the Cinéma du Réel, Prix de la Ville d'Amiens at Festival d'Amiens (France) and Mejor Opera International Prima at Mar del Plata Festival (Argentina).
The 27th edition of Curtas Vila do Conde - International Film Festival ended last July 14 with the announcement of the winners. As in previous years, after announcing the winners, the Festival presents a tour around the country, with a selection of some of the best films of this edition. The "Best of Curtas" will showcase some award-winning films, and the "Curtinhas" session is dedicated to the youngest and will be composed of small and fun films designed for the whole family.
The tour starts on July 22 and lasts until November, in different cities throughout the country: Coimbra, Leiria, Braga, OPorto, Lisbon, Matosinhos, Setúbal, Viseu, among many others.
The "Best of Curtas" program includes the films "Los Que Desean" by Elena López Riera (International Competition Grand Prize, DCN Beers Prize), "Nefta Football Club" by Yves Piat (Best Short Film of the My Generation competition), "Panique Au Village - La Foire Agricole" by Stéphane Aubier and Vicent Patar (Audience Prize Poças, of the International Competition), "Purpleboy" by Alexandre Siqueira (Best Animation of the International Competition and Movistar+ Prize) and "Mesa para dois no Carpa - David Bruno" by Francisco Lobo (Fujifilm Award at the Music Videos Competition).
The "Curtinhas" session presents a selection of the Curtinhas competition where the jury itself is composed of children: "Butterboo" by Emilie Pigeard (winner of the MAR Shopping Matosinhos Prize), "Kids" by Michael Frei (Honorable Mention M/10), and "A Tiger With No Stripes" by Raul Reyes (Honorable Mention M/3). In addition to these, the session also includes the films "Sam's Dream" by Nolwenn Roberts, "The Kite" by Martin Smatana and "Matches" by Géza M. Tóth.
In Lisbon, Cinemateca Portuguesa receives a special program that will take place on July 25th. This session includes the films "Los Que Desean" by Elena López Riera, "Ave Rara" by Vasco Saltão (Best Film of the National Competition, OralMED Prize + Pixel Bunker Prize) and "Les Extraordinaires Mésaventures De La Jeune Fille De Pierre" by Gabriel Abrantes (Audience Award SPA of the National Competition, Fiction Prize of the International Competition and the Vila do Conde Short Film Candidate to the European Film Awards).
Tour Calendar:
LEIRIA
Teatro José Lúcio da Silva
22 Jul - Curtinhas
Teatro José Lúcio da Silva
24 Jul - Best of Curtas
COIMBRA
Teatro Académico Gil Vicente
24 Jul - Curtinhas (18h30) // Best of Curtas (21h30)
Fila K Cineclube
30 Jul - Best of Curtas
Casa das Artes Bissaya Barreto
23 Out - Best of Curtas
LISBOA
Cinemateca Portuguesa
25 Jul - Best of Curtas (programa especial)
Zero em Comportamento
Auditório da Biblioteca Orlando Ribeiro, em Telheiras
26 Out - Curtinhas
PORTO
Casa Allen (Cineclube Porto)
7 Ago - Best of Curtas
VILA REAL
Shortcutz Vila Real
3 Set - Best of Curtas
VISEU
Shortcutz Viseu
6 Set - Curtinhas (15h) // Best of Curtas (22h)
20 Set - Curtinhas
SETÚBAL
Praça de Bocage - Sessão ao ar livre
14 Set - Best of Curtas
BRAGA
Gnration
27, 28 Set - Curtinhas
SILVES
Teatro Mascarenhas Gregório
28 Set - Curtinhas // Best of Curtas
MATOSINHOS
Teatro Constatino Nery
11 Out - Best of Curtas
SINES
Centro de Artes de Sines
18 Out - Best of Curtas
19 Out - Curtinhas
FUNCHAL
Centro Cultural Malaposta
10 Nov - Curtinhas
16 Nov - Best of Curtas
