The new work by João Nicolau, GAMBOZINOS, was the Portuguese short film selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Festival.

The film will be exhibited as world premiere on May 23rd at the Theatre Croisette and on May 25th at Studio 13.
The Director’s Fortnight aims to discover and promote films by young authors and to celebrate the work of established directors. João Nicolau is back to the Directors’ Fortnight, where he has already presented the short RAPACE (2006) and CANÇÃO DE AMOR E SAÚDE (2009). GAMBOZINOS follows the adventures of a 10 year old boy in a holiday camp.

Besides GAMBOZINOS, Agencia has a program entitled “New Portuguese Films” at the Short Film Corner with 6 other Portuguese short films.

Also in Cannes, Miguel Gomes and João Pedro Rodrigues are members of different juries and Basil da Cunha premieres his first feature film.

The 2nd Portuguese Contemporary Cinema Program will take place this year in Recife, 21-26 May at the CAIXA Cultural, in Rio de Janeiro, from 24 May to 6 June at the Instituto Moreira Salles, and São Paulo, 16-28 July at the CAIXA Cultural.

A selection of 18 Portuguese features and 7 short films produced from 2000 until today will be presented in the program. The event will feature also a new retrospective section and other exciting new works that will bring closer Portuguese Cinema to the Brazilian audience. Among other films, the event will screen KALI, O PEQUENO VAMPIRO by Regina Pessoa, OS OLHOS DO FAROL by Pedro Serrazina, A PISCINA by Iana Ferreira and João Viana, and O NOME E O N.I.M by Inês Oliveira.

After an interesting career through international film festivals, 3 short films of 3 Portuguese directors will premiere in theaters: “Sinais de Serenidade por Coisas Sem Sentido”, by Sandro Aguilar, “As Ondas”, de Miguel Fonseca e “Solo”, de Mariana Gaivão.

Agência – Portuguese Short Film Agency prepared a retrospective program entitled “Restless Future” to be screened at the next edition of Filmfest Dresden, that will be held 16-21 April in Germany.

The Portuguese program, that will be composed of the following films: REMAINS by Sandro Aguilar, O QUE ARDE CURA by João Rui Guerra da Mata, 31 by Miguel Gomes and RAPACE by João Nicolau, will be presented by a representative of the Agencia and aims to address the vitality of Portuguese Cinema which has come to conquer the most demanding audience of the most prestigious film festivals in the world through short film format.

Portuguese Cinema will be represented once again at the 15th edition of the prestigious Festival of Buenos Aires – BAFICI, that will be held from 10 to 21 April in that Argentinian city. Altogether seven films will be screened at this event, four feature films and three short films.
The two short films SINAIS DE SERENIDADE POR COISAS SEM SENTIDO by Sandro Aguilar and MANHÃ DE SANTO ANTÓNIO by João Pedro Rodrigues will compete in the “Vanguardia & Género” section as well as the feature film THE LAST TIME THAT VI MACAU, by the same author and in co-direction with João Rui Guerra da Mata.
AS ONDAS by Miguel Fonseca, O GEBO E A SOMBRA by Manoel de Oliveira, CENTRO HISTÓRICO by Manoel de Oliveira, Pedro Costa, Aki Kaurismäki and Victor Erice will also be screened in Panorama as well as RECONVERSÃO by Thom Andersen, a feature film produced by Curtas Metragens CRL within the context of Curtas Vila do Conde – International Film Festival 20th anniversary.

The films “Posfácio at the Canhão Factory” by António Ferreira, and “Entrecampos” by João Rosas, were selected to the competition of European Medium Length Film Festival in Brive, which started last Tuesday in France.
“Posfácio at the Canhão Factory”, with half an hour long, was produced under Guimarães European Capital of Culture 2012 and “Entrecampos” 32 minutes integrates the group of 23 films in competition at the festival, and both were debut in Curtas Vila do Conde, last July.
The film “The Suspect” by José Miguel Ribeiro was also selected to the non-competitive program European Animation Program. In the presentation of this program the festival describes the films included here as master pieces of European Animation in the medium length format.

“The New and Very New in Portuguese Cinema” cycle will take place in Espaço Nimas, Lisbon, from the 14th to the 27th March and will exhibit recent Portuguese feature and short films, part of them never exhibited in theatrical distribution and some awarded in festivals.
Gonçalo Tocha, Salomé Lamas, Carlos Conceição, João Viana, Rodrigo Areias, Patrick Mendes, Leonor Noivo, Cláudia Varejão, David Doutel, Vasco Sá, Pedro Brito or Filipe Abranches are some of the authors with works on display in this cycle.
Agencia – Portuguese Short Film Agency collaborated with the organization of the event in the proposition and lending of the screening prints.

The short film “Kali, The Little Vampire” by Regina Pessoa, was the animation awarded on the Portuguese Competition of the at the Monstra 2013, that was held between the 7th and 17th March.
This is the most recent award to this film that gathered already prizes in Hiroshima, Curtas Vila do Conde and Cinanima, an honorable mention in IndieLisboa and was nominated to the Annie Awards 2013.

The Berlinale had this year the largest participation ever of Portuguese films: altogether there were five films, including the feature “Battle of Tabatô” and the short film “Tabatô”, both by the filmmaker João Viana.

In addition to the Special Mention for Best First Feature Film at the Berlin Film Festival 2013 that distinguished the feature film The Battle of Tabatô, the Portuguese director received also another award in Berlinale:
His short film Tabatô (who competed for the Golden Bear for Best Short Film) won the prize of the DAAD Short Film Prize 2013 (special prize for Artists – Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD) attributed to “artistically innovative and visually distinct” works. Besides the distinction, this award provides an artistic residence for three months in Berlin to the director.

João Pedro Rodrigues, one of the most relevant Portuguese directors of the new generation will have a complete retrospective of his work screened in Japan. The program, that will include the films co-directed with João Rui Guerra da Mata, will be shown in 8 places in Japan.

In the 7th February, it is presented the Short Circuit at a General Assembly during the International Short Film Festival of Clermont-Ferrand. Agência is one of the founder entities.

Short Circuit federates European organizations whose activities are dedicated to distribution and promotion of European short film whatever its genre: fiction, animation, experimental, documentary or video art. Its main objective is to represent short film distribution sector at an European level and increase short film distribution in Europe and worldwide on all the screens.

The 12 funding members, from 11 different european countries, are the KurzfilmAgentur (Germany), L’Agence du court métrage (France), Interfilm Berlin (Germany), Croatian Audiovisual Centre (Croatia), Freak Independant Film Agency (Spain), Centro Nazionale del Cortometraggio (Italy), Irish Film Board (Ireland), Norwegian Film Institute (Norway), Eye Film Institut (Netherlands), Agencia – Portuguese Short Film Agency (Portugal), Swedish Film Institute (Sweden) and Swiss Films (Switzerland).

Board of Directors: President, Alexander Gramakte(Kurzfilm Agentur); Vice presidents, Nuno Rodrigues (Agencia-Portuguese Short Film Agency), Peter Von Hoof, Eye Film Institut).

+info at Short Circuit website.

The short-film “Kali, the Little Vampire”, by Regina Pessoa, is being screened in several places:
– it was nominated for the Annie awards, and was present at the 40th Annual Annie Awards which took place on Saturday, February 2, 2013, at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California.
– it will be screened in competition at the Clermont Ferrand Festival;
– it will be screened in Paris, at: from 04/02 to 16/02 at the Cultural Center of Gentilly; from 19/02 to 02/03 at the Library of Orly;
– then, it will be at Anima Festival in Brussels, in competition;
– on the 16th Regina Pessoa will be in Lille, France to show her films at the Rendez-vous of Raoul: every two months, Raoul Servais invites a filmmaker who has marked the history of animation for a screening of his films and exchange time on his career.

Agência will be once again present in the next edition of the largest and most important European festival dedicated to short films, the Festival of Clermont-Ferrand, France, which will take place between 1 and 10 February 2013.
KALI O PEQUENO VAMPIRO by Regina Pessoa, was selected to the National Competition of the festival (the film is a co-production between France, Portugal, Germany and Swirzerland). In the Internacional Competition OS VIVOS TAMBÉM CHORAM by Basil da Cunha was selected (the film made its premiere at the Director’s Forthnight, Cannes, and Curtas Vila do Conde where it received the Best Portuguese Short Film Award) e finally SIZIGIA by Luís Urbano was selected to the Labo Competition.
The director and producer João Viana will participate at the Euro Connection Pitching, where he will present the project “The Crisis of the Global Financial System” with the aim of finding a co-production with other european countries.
Agência will be present with a stand in the Short Film Market of this festival, together with Curtas Vila do Conde – International Film Festival and Guimarães European Capital of Culture. The market is a privileged space and of great importance to the development of a promotion strategy for the Portuguese Cinema considering the buzz around the event and the amount of professionals present.
The participation of Agência in this Market had the support of Instituto Camões, The Portuguese Embassy in France and Niepoort wines.

The Blackmovie Film Festival, that will be held from January 18th to 27th will make an homage to Portuguese Cinema through the exhbition of a Special Program of feature and short films (the last one with the cooperation of Agencia).

AS THE FLAMES ROSE BY João Rui Guerra da Mata; RED DAWN by João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata; JOURNEY TO CAPE VERDE by José Miguel Ribeiro; RESTLESSNESS by Lorenzo Degl’Innocenti; WILL BE de Joana Toste; MY LIFE IN YOUR HANDS by Nuno Beato and THE EYES OF THE LIGHTHOUSE by Pedro Serrazina are some of the films presented.

More info at: http://blackmovie.ch/2013/

We are now closer to another International Film Festival in Rotterdam, one of Europe’s most important platforms for contemporary cinema. In this edition – which runs from January 23 to February 3 – are selected several Portuguese short films: “Morning of Saint Anthony’s Day”, by João Pedro Rodrigues; “Signs of Stillness Out of Meaningless Things”, by Sandro Aguilar; “On the Dragon’s Flake”, by Ivo M. Ferreira; “The Scoundrel”, by Paulo Abreu; “Ao Lobo da Madragoa”, by Pedro Bastos; “Zwazo”, by Gabriel Abrantes; “Luís”, by João Lopes; and “Cachéu”, by Filipa César

The film “Reconversão”, by Thom Andersen, is having a remarkable international career. It is being highlighted, now, in the United States, with a screening at the Museum of The Moving Image and references in The New York Times and Film Comment. The film was a commission of 20th Curtas Vila do Conde and discusses the work of Eduardo Souto Moura.

+info at Curtas Vila do Conde blog.

The film “The Waves”, by Miguel Fonseca, is getting an excelent internacional career in festivals. In the last months, the short-film has been selected to about twenty festivals, such as the following selections: Rotterdam, Curtas Vila do Conde, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Cork, Ghent or Montréal. The film has been awarded three times: Special Mention (Edinburgh), EFA Prize (Ghent) and Best Cinematography (Bucharest).

The film tells the story of two sisters who share their vacations at the beach. It’s the third film by Miguel Fonseca, after “Alpha” (2008) and “I Know You Can Hear Me” (2010).

The year of 2012 was an excellent year for Portuguese cinema as a whole: many films released and prizes all over the world. In the field of short film, the Agency maintained its leading role, distributing, promoting and programming Portuguese cinema.

With the end of the year, the Agency can now present some of the numbers from 2012 that prove the health of Portuguese cinema of short duration: 127 films in circulation, 2423 submissions to International Film Festivals, 576 official selections, 54 awards and distinctions. As a total, these films made an about of 115.000 spectators.

November was a good month for festivals and awards for Portuguese films. Some short-films promoted by Agência were awarded. At Caminhos do Cinema Português, which took place from 9 to 18 November, awarded “Fado of a Grown Man”, by Pedro Brito, as Best Animated Film. At CINANIMA, in Espinho, “Kali – The Little Vampire”, by Regina Pessoa, was awarded with a Jury Special Mention and the Award for Best Soundtrack (International Competition); “Fado of a Grown Man”, by Pedro Brito received the award RTP2 – Onda Curta. Finally, at Janela Internacional de Cinema do Recife, “As the Flames Rose”, by João Rui Guerra da Mata, won the award for Best Editing; and “Morning of Saint Anthony’s Day”, by João Pedro Rodrigues, won the award for Best Image.

Agência – Portuguese Short Film Agency will be represented, by Salette Ramalho, at the Short Latino section do ALCINE – Festival Internacional de Cine, which takes place in Alcalá de Henares, Spain. This section will discuss the place of short-films in the actual audiovisual panorama: its opportunities of coproduction, distribution and exhibition.

The Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes will have a retrospective at the Torino Film Festival, that takes place from 23rd November to 1st December. This retrospective is made after another that took place at Mostra de São Paulo. In both festival, the retrospectives include all his work, from feature to short-films.

The site from the Torino Film Festival says about the filmmaker: “It will feature the entire opus of this Portuguese director, who burst onto the scene at the last Berlinale with his spectacular Tabu, and whose previous films include almost-documentaries, adult fairytales, tableaux vivants, vintage languor, existential irony and flights of imagination.”

The last short film of João Pedro Rodrigues, “Morning of Saint Anthony’s Day” is raising enormous international interest. The film had its premiere at the Critic’s Week at Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the European Film Awards 2012 at the 20th Curtas Vila do Conde. In the next months, the film will be screened in several festivals: Viennale – Vienna International Film Festival, Austria; Flanders International Film Festival Ghent, Belgium; Vancouver, Canada; New York Film Festival, USA; DocLisboa – Lisbon International Documentary Festival, Portugal; FICVALDIVIA 2012, Chile; and Festival do Rio, Brazil.

“Morning of Saint Anthony’s Day” is a Blackmaria production with the support of the school Le Fresnoy.

The animated short film “Kali, The Little Vampire” by Regina Pessoa, was awarded at the Hiroshima Animation Festival with the Hiroshima Award, worth 10.000EUR.
“Kali, the little vampire,” which was screened previously at Annecy, IndieLisboa, and awarded in Vila do Conde with the Canal Plus Award, closes a trilogy of animation about childhood by Regina Pessoa, composed also by “The Night” (1999) and “Tragic Story with Happy Ending”(2005), this being one of the most awarded films ever animated film in Portugal.
The short film, which is a co-production between Portugal, France, Canada and Switzerland, has original music of Young Gods and narration by actor Christopher Plummer in the English and French version and the director Fernando Lopes in the Portuguese version.

Portuguese cinema was once again highlighted at the closing ceremony of a major international festival. This time in Locarno, the fiction “A Última Vez que Vi Macau” by the duo of filmmakers João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata, served as a statement to the Portuguese government. It was the president of the jury, the notable Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who said it at the closing ceremony of the festival. The Honorable Mention award went to one of the central characters of the film: “the extraordinary character Candy”, for “her powerful presence through absence which resonated for the Jury as representing the immense courage of Portuguese cinema in times when the failures of government and social systems threaten the cinematic arts worldwide.”
Beyond this mention “A Última Vez que Vi Macau” was also distinguished with the Boccalino d 'Oro for best achievement, awarded by a group of journalists and film critics.
The short film “O Que Arde Cura/As the Flames Rose” by João Rui Guerra da Mata also won the prize Untertitelung Film and Video.

NORTH ATLANTIC by Bernardo Nascimento is among the ten finalists in the Your Film Festival, the first Film Festival on YouTube, created by Ridley Scott.

This short film, which was distinguished last year in Vila do Conde Short with the Prize for Best Cinematography, was selected among 15,000 submissions to be one of the 50 semifinalists. After a public online voting it is now among the 10 finalists, which gave Bernardo Nascimento his presence in Venice: the oldest festival in the world, that takes place in the Lido, between August 29 and September 8.

The winner will be given the opportunity to make a film with a budget of $500,000 (about 400,000 euros) produced by Ridley Scott and actor Michael Fassbender. The winner will be announced by these two (Scott and Fassbender) during the festival.