The Curtas de Vila do Conde film festival, in the Porto district, celebrates its 30th edition this year, which will be celebrated with an unprecedented initiative, taking the programming to 30 different locations in the county.
The event, which takes place between July 9 and 17, and which had a record number of 5,168 films presented, aims to get even closer to the local community, taking cinema to “unexpected places”, not only in the city as well as in parishes.
“We wanted to do something different and not just watch the films that marked these 30 years of the festival. This initiative arose to take the program to 30 different locations, some less conventional and unexpected for the presentation of cinema, such as the Caxinas market, leading moviegoers to discover new spaces”, said Miguel Dias, one of those responsible for the event.
The co-founder of Curtas also recalled the evolution of the event over these three decades, expressing his delight at the affirmation of the festival, at a national and international level, as a launching pad and consecration of many film talents.
“We started doing this very young, in an almost amateur experience, with only a typewriter and a fax machine, but always trying to evolve, taking as a starting point what had already been done, with adaptations and growth, but without breaking with the past”, recalled Miguel Dias.
The director of Curtas recalled the “particularly difficult and uncertain moments” of the last two years, marked by the conditions of the covid-19 pandemic, but stressed that the festival was not interrupted even then.
Now, after those times, Curtas returns in its full format, without the online sessions and with the theaters at maximum capacity, for a diversified program, with an emphasis on the competition aspects, where 5,168 films from 123 countries were screened.
In the international competition, which represents more than 70% of the entries, this year’s highlight is for the novelties by directors Radu Jude, Antonin Peretjatko, Hlynur Pálmason, Yann Gonzalez and Tsai Ming-liang, some of them with guaranteed presence in Vila do Conde.
In the national Curtas contest, they deserve the national premieres of “Aos Dezasseis”, by Carlos Lobo, “Ice Merchants” by João Gonzalez, “Garrano”, by David Doutel and Vasco Sá, and “Skola di Tarafe”, by Sónia Vaz. Special mention Borges and Filipa Cesar.
Also in national premiere, in what is the film’s first appearance at festivals, will be Alice dos Reis’s “See you later, Space Island”, while Mónica Santos’s “O Casaco Rosa”, “O Teu Peso em Ouro”, by Sandro Aguilar, “Pê”, by Margarida Vila-Nova, “Saturno”, by Luís Costa and André Guiomar, or “Heitor sem Nome”, by Vasco Saltão.
Outside of the competitive programs, the national premieres of the feature films “Fogo Fátuo”, by João Pedro Rodrigues, “O Joelho de Ahed”, by Nadav Lapid, and “Saudade do Futuro”, by Anna Azevedo, with the three future directors present in Vila do Conde to present the sessions and speak with the public.
Continuing with the strategy of recent years of captivating children and young people, and more dedicated to families, the My Generation and Curtinhas sections appear, the latter with a novelty, as it includes a traveling movie theater, the Inflatable Cinema, which will tour some parishes in the municipality of Vila do Conde, with several daily exhibitions.
Also noteworthy in the creative section Stereo, which combines music and cinema, for the screening of “Agora e Para Semper”, a documentary on the history and career of the Portuguese band Da Weasel.
Still in the interconnections with other forms of art, and in addition to a series of concerts, this edition of Curtas proposes a trip to the work of Marie Losier, a French creator of images dedicated to analog cinema in the digital age, who creates projects in dialogue with other ranchers.
In the New Voices section, the festival invited two emerging figures from European cinema: the French Céline Devaux and the Spanish Chema García Ibarra.
The Vila do Conde Short Film Festival, which takes place between July 9 and 17, and has the main support of the Vila do Conde City Council and the Cinema and Audiovisual Institute, set the price of each session at four euros.
A total pass, worth 30 euros, is also available for those who purchase it before June 30.
The festival will have as central poles the Vila do Conde Municipal Theater, the Solar — Cinematographic Art Gallery and the Vila do Conde Municipal Auditorium.
Source: Observadora
