On Friday, July 12, at 8 p.m., the Curtas Vila do Conde will officially open with a music and animation film event, with a special mention to the work of João González, within a program that covers the national and international cinema scene, with special attention to short films.

The National Short Film Competition is, above all, a meeting point for the Portuguese film community. An important opportunity to share experiences and learn, with care and attention, the state of the art of a cinematography that, year after year, reveals itself as one of the most intense and irreverent in contemporary cinema. The Curtas 2024 selection once again highlights the vitality, diversity and energy of several generations of filmmakers, some debutants and others already well known to the festival audience. The list of films includes works by Isadora Neves Marques, Inês Lima and Daniel Soares, all of which had their world premieres at Cannes. For the first time, films by Rita M. Pestana, Patrícia Neves Gomes, Frederico Mesquita, Sofia Borges, Margarida Assis and Maria Trigo Teixeira are competing at the festival. The section also features the return of Margarida Vila-Nova, Pedro Caldas, Alexandra Ramires and Laura Gonçalves (best short film at Annecy, the largest animation festival), Luís Costa, Mário Macedo, Joana Nogueira and Patrícia Rodrigues.

The International Short Film Competition is an unpredictable showcase for the best short film in the world, discovering new talents and future cinematic memories. Among animations, fiction and documentaries, it stands out for introducing new names such as Nebojša Slijepčević (winner at Cannes, with The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent), Frank Sweeney (winner at Rotterdam, with Few Can See), Ilir Hasanaj (winner at Rotterdam, with Workers’ Wings) and Eric K. Boulianne (winner at Locarno for Making Babies). On the list of names already known to the Curtas public, Torill Kove (third time at Curtas, with Maybe Elephants), Samir Karahoda (with On the Way), Florence Miailhe (with Papillon), Nina Gantz (Wander to Wonder), Nicolas Keppens (third appearance, with Beautiful Men), Corina Schwingruber Ilić (fourth appearance, with Been There) and Elena López Riera (winner of the Curtas Grand Prix in 2019, and highlight of the Nuevas Voces programme in 2020).

Experimental films have occupied a central place in the programme and at the heart of the festival, unequivocally contributing to the affirmation of its identity. Year after year, many films have revealed the breadth of creative possibilities that each of them can reinvent, as well as experimenting with striking visual and sound effects; without neglecting it, but opening up to unexpected dialogues between the real and the fictional, which with different means and motives still manage to surprise us, exploring all the emotions and concerns that the film object can arouse, among authors and spectators, demonstrating that this is still a field in expansion. A constellation of 23 films that is presented as an open space for critical thought, dreams and freedom, in which the political, the personal and the poetic coexist. As in the competitions already mentioned, there are some important references, repeated from previous editions, such as Miranda Pennell, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Rainer Kohlberger, Siegfried A. Fruhauf, Kevin Jerome Everson, among others, as well as some new presences, such as Rita Morais, Nicolas Gebbe or J.P. Sniadecki.

Along with the already announced spotlights on the works of Bertrand Mandico and Elina Löwensohn, Alberto Vázquez, Laura Ferrés and Yorgos Zois, the programming in dialogue with Solar – Galería de Arte Cinemática by Morgan Quaintance and the extensive programming of film-concert proposals by Stereo, Curtas 2024 also includes programming dedicated to families (Curtinhas) and a school film competition Take One! This year’s programme also includes the first trip to the north of Somos no Ar, a feature film by Diogo Costa Amarante, and the entire programme of talks at the festival, which promotes a closer encounter between the public and the filmmakers.

Curtas Vila do Conde will take place between 12 and 21 July. More information and accreditations at https://www.festival.curtas.pt/