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Grand Tour

Portugeuse director Miguel Gomes' The Grand Tour transports us back to colonial Burma in 1917, where jilted bride Molly (Crista Alfaiate) sets off across the Asian continent in pursuit off her fiancée Edward (Gonçalo Waddington), a British civil servant.

Gomes has established himself as a singular voice in world cinema. From his Portugeuese mountain-set drama, Our Beloved Month Of August (2008), to Tabu's (2012) character's search at the foothills of Mount Tabu in Africa, and the Arabian Nights trilogy (2015), Gomes has geographically shifted the focus of his stories. He continues to redirect his authorial traits not only through the setting of Asia but by bringing together the screwball comedy with the aesthetically striking monochrome cinematography of The Grand Tour's period chapters, and a documentary style for the present day.

Grand Tour

In conversation with Eye For Film, Gomes discussed his transformation as a storyteller, the relationship between cinema and.

Miguel Gomes’s Grand Tour premieres in theaters on March 28 before coming to Mubi on April 18.Grand Tour.Some years ago, I traveled nearly the length of Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. That winter was warm, as nearly all are now, but a Siberian winter is still winter by any definition, and for two weeks I shivered my way from Ulaanbaatar to Moscow. I slipped on the vast frozen expanse of Lake Baikal, visited a museum dedicated to the painter Nicholas Roerich where all the paintings were fakes, saw a cathedral built atop the merchant house where in one night the entire Romanov line had been eliminated. On the leg from Irkutsk to Novosibirsk I shared a cabin with three men. I do not speak Russian, and for twenty-eight hours we managed to communicate via gestures and photos and sentence fragments ventured in halting English. They wanted to know where I was coming from,...

Few working filmmakers today combine rigor and playfulness in their approach to their art, and with such aplomb, as Miguel Gomes. Over the past two decades, the Portuguese director has enchanted both festival circuit and arthouse crowds with his inventive approaches to deconstructing cinema’s unique relationship with artifice and time.

Grand Tour finds Gomes at his most approachable yet inscrutable. The genesis of the film, which won him the best director prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, began with a small anecdote inside The Gentleman in the Parlour by Somerset Maugham, in which an English man runs away from his fiancée across Asia in the early 20th century. Gomes expands these two pages into a two-hour feature split across two distinct halves. The first follows the fleeing Edward (Gonçalo Waddington) as he hops across the continent in cowardice, while the second details his jilted lover Molly (Crista Alfaiate) in hot pursuit.

Note: This review was originally published as part of our 2024 Cannes coverage. Grand Tour opens in theaters on March 28 from Mubi.

If Chris Marker and Preston Sturges ever made a film together, it might have looked something like Grand Tour, a sweeping tale that moves from Rangoon to Manila, via Bangkok, Saigon and Osaka, as it weaves the stories of two disparate lovers towards a fateful reunion. The stowaways could scarcely be more Sturgian: he the urbane man on the run, she the intrepid woman trying to track him down. Their scenes are set in 1917 and shot in a classical studio style, yet they’re delivered within a contemporary travelogue––as if we are not only following their epic romance but a director’s own wanderings.

Grand Tour, which delivered much-needed magic to this year’s Cannes Film Festival lineup, is directed by the one and only Miguel Gomes, the...

Many engaged couples out there like to take their sweet time getting hitched, and there's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes that leads nosy folks to quip things behind the couples' backs, like, "Wow, longest engagement ever." But what about the farthestengagement ever? From acclaimed filmmaker Miguel Gomes, Grand Tour is a diptych, purposefully disjointed feature that pits its allegedly soon-to-be-married protagonists often at wildly far distances from each other. We're talking simply on a geographical standpoint, but metaphors are far and wide in Gomes' challenging but rewarding new film.

Grand Tour takes its title from a long-established travel itinerary known as a "grand tour of Asia," a popular option with Westerners looking for a broad-stroke introduction to the continent. The movie is billed as a "globetrotting romantic mystery," but the "mystery" might instead translate as utter confusion to many mainstream audiences, and the dreary monotone of the fim won't help.

"I'll hunt him down, whatever it takes." This one is for cinephiles only. Mubi has unveiled the official US trailer for a strange film titled Grand Tour, a unique creation from Portuguese director Miguel Gomes, best known for his films Tabu (2012), The Tsugua Diaries (2021), and his Arabian Nights trilogy (2015). The film premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival last year and it won the Best Director award as part of the competition, with stops at many other festivals after. Described as a "breathtaking odyssey of romance, escape, and pursuit." In 1917 Burma, a British civil servant abandons his fiancée — only to find her then relentlessly chasing him across Asia. A playful yet melancholic reimagining of the "pursuit film," blending luminous 16mm B&w cinematography with archival footage. This stars Gonçalo Waddington & Crista Alfaiate. It is a tragicomedy though also "melancholic and courageous." This is definitely not for everyone - an experimental, abstract...

Miguel Gomes’ stunning “Grand Tour” is a trek through yearning, spanning both time and space.

The film, which premiered at Cannes in 2024 where Gomes won Best Director, was later acquired by Mubi for release. “Grand Tour” takes it title in stride: The film begins in 1917 Burma, where British diplomat Edward (Gonçalo Waddington) ditches his fiancée Molly (Crista Alfaiate) after getting cold feet before their nuptials. Edward instead sets off on a pursuit across Asia, with Molly following suit.

The film is billed by Mubi as a “melodrama and screwball comedy with a cat-and-mouse chase between lovers.”

“Grand Tour” includes black-and-white period visuals with modern-day documentary footage to span from Saigon to Shanghai onscreen. The film was Portugal’s Best International Feature entry to the 97th Academy Awards.

“I think I’m really attached to Portuguese cinema,” Gomes told IndieWire. “Portugal doesn’t have a film industry. Because of the economical context,...

Miguel Gomes does not consider himself a genius like Alfred Hitchcock.

The 52-year-old Portuguese director’s ravishing, cross-continental, mostly B&W feature “Grand Tour” — a mix of drama and ethnology — won him the Best Director award at Cannes back in May and is now Portugal’s Oscar submission to the 2025 Oscars. According to Gomes, unlike Hitchcock, he cannot sit around a room and dictate innovative ideas for story arcs and shots.

Speaking with IndieWire at the Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood, in his first time in L.A. and on the first stop of his Oscars press tour amid the film’s upcoming release in France and Italy, the gracious, soft-voiced, sharp-eared Gomes said, “I have, in my case, to open the window, let the world come in, and react to it.” Cigarette puffs later, he said, “I have to catch butterflies.”

It’s fascinating to hear a modern master...

Grand Tour.Grand Tour (2024), director Miguel Gomes’s sixth feature and first to play in competition at Cannes, is a return to the globe-trotting style of his pre-pandemic work. In this follow-up to his remarkably resourceful Covid comedy The Tsugua Diaries (2021), which he codirected with his wife and frequent collaborator Maureen Fazendeiro, the Portuguese filmmaker exhibits an equal but opposite kind of inventiveness as he turns a two-page passage from W. Somerset Maugham’s The Gentleman in the Parlour, a 1930 collection of the English author’s travel writing, into a peripatetic odyssey across Southeast Asia. In 1918, Edward (Gonçalo Waddington), a civil servant for the British government, spontaneously flees Rangoon the day his fiancée, Molly (Crista Alfaiate), arrives to be married. As Edward sets off by boat to Singapore, and from there to Bangkok, Saigon, Manila, Osaka, and Shanghai, telegrams from Molly inexplicably arriving all the while, the story blossoms into a surreal,...

Portugal has entered Miguel Gomes’ Cannes award-winning Grand Tour for the international feature category at the Oscars.

The black-and-white feature first premiered in Competition at Cannes where Gomes picked up the best director prize. It also screened at Toronto and Sydney and will play New York Film Festival (NYFF).

This marks Gomes’ third time representing Portugal at the Oscars, following 2008’s Our Beloved Month Of August and 2015’s Arabian Nights: Volume 2 – The Desolate One.

Set in 1917, Grand Tour stars Goncalo Waddington as a British Empire official in Burma who runs away on his wedding day, only for the jilted bride to follow him across Asia.

Match Factory has sold a raft of key territories for Miguel Gomes’ feature Grand Tour, following its buzzy world premiere in Competition in Cannes in May where it won the Best Director prize.

The company has closed deals to Spain (Avalon Distribucion Audiovisual), Benelux (Imagine Film Distribution), Poland (New Horizons Association), Greece (Weird Wave), Former Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom Film), the Baltics (Scanorama), Romania (Voodoo Films), Bulgaria (Beta Film), Australia and New Zealand (Potential Films), Cis excluding Ukraine (Mauris Film), South Korea (M&m International), Thailand (Movies Matter), and Indonesia (Pt Falcon).

The Match Factory sales announcement comes hot on the heels of news last week that parent company Mubi has acquired rights for the film for North America, UK, Ireland, Latin America, Germany, Austria, Turkey, and India.

In other distribution deals, detailed by The Match Factory on Thursday, Edko Films will be distribute the film in Hong Kong and Macau.

Tandem...

Exclusive: Mubi has snapped up multiple key territories for Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour, following the film’s world premiere in Competition at Cannes where it won the Best Director prize.

The global distributor, streaming service and production company has acquired North America, UK, Ireland, Latin America, Germany, Austria, Turkey and India. The company will unveil release plans in the coming months.

Opening in Rangoon, Burma in 1918, the film follows British civil servant Edward Abbot (Gonçalo Waddington) who flees fiancée Molly Singleton (Crista Alfaiate) the day she arrives for their wedding. Determined to get married and amused by his move, Molly tracks him across Asia.

Grand Tour was Gomes’ first feature to world premiere in Competition at Cannes, after debuting previous critically-acclaimed films Arabian Nights in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2015 and Tabu, which played in competition at the Berlinale in 2012, winning the Silver Bear.

Gomes co-wrote the screenplay with Mariana Ricardo,...

Germany’s Pixable Studios has boarded coming of age “Finisterra,” one of the TV series projects which Portuguese outfit Take It Easy is promoting at this year’s Conecta Fiction & Entertainment edition.

Lisbon-based Take It Easy produced Oscar-shortlisted LGBTQ+ live action short “An Avocado Pit,” executive produced by Elliot Page.

“Finisterra” has just entered into post-production and will be ready for delivery by January.

A Portugal-Luxembourg-Germany co-production, “Finisterra is also produced by Luxembourg’s Wild Fang Films.

The TV series’ producers are Frederico Serra at Take It Easy, Pixable’s Frank Lenhard and Will Fang’s Christian Neuman. Production is set up at Portuguese pubcaster Rtp.

Created and directed by emerging talents Guilherme Branquinho and Leone Niel, the TV drama is inspired by real events set at the height of World War II.

The 7-episode, 45-minute TV production follows Celeste, a young orphan girl, accused of conjuring the devil in the isolated town of Aljezur,...

How much can we expect cinema to be fully legible? If history, culture, and existence itself are not so easily parsed, why should the films we make about them be? Is navigating this chaotic life not defined by the both wondrous and wearisome waves of the world crashing over us?

If there was ever a film to capture this, it would be the spellbinding though scattered “Grand Tour” from director Miguel Gomes. His latest is an expansive, sweeping work that bends time, space, genre,and form. It is a wholly uncompromising experience that dances with mirth and melancholy. Proving to be evocative in one moment and unrelentingly exhausting in the next, it’s as gorgeous to behold visually as it is hard to completely embrace thematically. And yet, if you abandon yourself to it by the end as one character says, you can catch glimpses of something spectacularly sublime in...

I still recall when Miguel Gomes took over the Directors’ Fortnight section with not one, but three films for the The Arabian Nights trilogy in one edition and it’s almost hard to believe that the filmmaker of Tabu and more recently the co-directed The Tsugua Diaries (also Quinzaine) was never in the Un Certain Regard or Comp sections. That changed in 2024 – a year that could potentially see the filmmaker launch his second feature in Venice. A co-production between Portugal, China, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, the dreamy Grand Tour stars the elusive Gonçalo Waddington as Edward and the woman on his heels in Molly by Crista Alfaiate.…...

Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour impressed critics on Screen International’s Cannes jury grid while Karim Aïnouz’s Motel Destino saw mixed results.

Gomes’ first Cannes Competition feature scored an average of three after The Telegraph, Justin Chang (La Times), Kong Rithdee (Bangkok Post) and Screen’s own critic gave it ’four stars’ (excellent). The black-and-white feature also received five ‘three stars’ (good), two ‘two stars’ (average), and one ’one star’ (poor) from Nt Binh at France’s Positif.

Set in 1917, Grand Tour stars Goncalo Waddington as a British Empire official in Burma who runs away on his wedding day, only...

Portuguese auteur Miguel Gomes deepens his brand of unclassifiable, globetrotting cinema with Grand Tour, a period drama that’s not really a period drama at all, or is it?

Set in Southeast Asia circa 1918, and following the trajectories of a British civil servant and his fiancée as they trace similar paths across the continent, the film hops between present-day documentary footage and historical recreations, with voiceovers in several local languages and a plot that slowly nudges along. Fans of Gomes’ breakthrough 2012 feature, Tabu, will find much to love here as well, and in terms of craft his latest offers some truly beguiling moments. But anyone looking for a good story, or characters to get hooked on, may find themselves admiring the scenery without ever relishing it.

Despite a simple pitch, Grand Tour is, at least aesthetically speaking, anything but simple, jumping between epochs, genres, color and black-and-white without warning. Gomes...

After the extraordinary triple whammy of Emelia Perez, The Substance and Anora, here comes Portuguese auteur Miguel Gomes with a blast of cinematic chloroform to calm the Cannes Competition down a touch.

A talky, experimental odyssey through the Far East, it deals with issues of colonialism and gender, but in such an oblique way that it’s hard to fathom without referring to the rather cryptic press notes that come with it. Fans of Gomes’ deadpan style — with which he broke out in 2012 when his film Tabu became an arthouse favorite on the festival circuit — no doubt will respond to its eccentricity, its wry irony and its undeniably striking monochrome cinematography. Less enlightened viewers may wish to take a pillow.

The film takes place in two timeframes. The fictional narrative takes place in 1918 and begins with British civil servant Edward Abbot (Gonçalo Waddington) arriving at Mandalay station in Burma. Although...

Our times are troubled, our burdens heavy, our passage through life often arduous and the bad kind of absurd. But for anyone feeling a pessimism creeping in like slow poison and taking the edge off any appetite for adventure, Portuguese singularity Miguel Gomes comes like a comet across the Cannes competition with “Grand Tour,” an enchanting, enlivening, era-spanning, continent-crossing travelogue that runs the very serious risk of infecting you with the antidote: a potent dose of wanderlust for life. “Abandon yourself to the world,” says one character, a Japanese monk prone to walking about with a wicker basket on his head, “and see how generous it is to you.” Abandon yourself to “Grand Tour” and reap similar, joyful rewards.

Monkeying around in time like a macaque in a hot spring, trundling through countries like a comically short-legged donkey on a jungle trail, yet somehow also peering down on the action...

Cannes film festival

Miguel Gomes’s beguiling and bewildering story follows a jittery fiance fleeing his intended across the British empire, and her hot pursuit

Once again, Portuguese auteur Miguel Gomes delivers a film in which the most complex sophistication coexists with innocence and charm. It is at once very worldly and yet unworldly – in fact almost childlike at times. It is elegant, eccentric and needs some time to be indulged. The British characters are played by Portuguese actors speaking Portuguese, except for a few rousing choruses of the Eton Boating Song, which is in English. (There is more literal casting for other nationalities.) And yes, it is six parts beguiling to one part exasperating. But quite unlike any other film in the Cannes competition, it leaves you with a gentle, bemused smile on your face.

The story, co-written by Gomes, could be adapted from something by Somerset Maugham, but...

The spirit of “Sans Soleil” casts a long shadow over Miguel Gomes’ beguiling “Grand Tour,” a less essayistic but similarly atemporal travelogue that sometimes feels almost as indebted to Chris Marker as Gomes’ “Tabu” was to F.W. Murnau. Much like Marker’s 1983 masterpiece, Gomes’ film is propelled by the mysterious frisson that it creates between “exotic” documentary footage and disembodied narration. And much like “Sans Soleil,” “Grand Tour” uses that non-stop voiceover to shape its accompanying images into an abstract story about the elusive relationship between time and memory.

In this case, that story is a love story (of sorts), one that again finds Gomes harkening back to the kind of blinkered colonial romances that were so prevalent in the silent era and the early days of Hollywood. And since a love story requires a tactile anchor for its yearning, Gomes — in stark contrast to Marker — cast a pair of...

"I've been running away from her like a coward." The Match Factory has revealed a first look trailer for a Portuguese film set in Asia premiering at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival next month. This new film is called Grand Tour, and it's the latest feature by Portuguese director Miguel Gomes, best known for his films Tabu (2012), The Tsugua Diaries (2021), and his Arabian Nights trilogy (2015). Grand Tour was already announced as part of the prestigious Competition at Cannes 2024 this year, which is a big deal for a film like this. Edward, civil servant, flees fiancee Molly on their wedding day in Rangoon, Burma, in 1917. His travels replace panic with melancholy. Molly, set on marriage and amused by his escape, trails him across Asia. The film stars Gonçalo Waddington & Crista Alfaiate. Variety says it features a mix of "narrative sequences shot in a studio [which are] intercut with footage of contemporary Asia." It is...

Among our most-anticipated premieres at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, now less than a month away, is Grand Tour, marking the return of Portuguese director Miguel Gomes. Starring Gonçalo Waddington, Crista Alfaiate, Cláudio da Silva, and Lang Khê Tran, the 1917-set film follows a civil servant who flees from his fiancée, who subsequently attempts to track him down across Asia. Mixed in with this narrative is 16mm footage of contemporary Asia. Ahead of the Cannes premiere, the beautiful first trailer has now arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “Rangoon, Burma, 1917. Edward, a civil servant for the British Empire, runs away from his fiancée Molly the day she arrives to get married. During his travels, however, panic gives way to melancholy. Contemplating the emptiness of his existence, the cowardly Edward wonders what has become of Molly… Determined to get married and amused by Edward’s move, Molly follows his trail on this Asian grand tour.

Variety has been granted exclusive access to the trailer (below) for Portuguese director Miguel Gomes’ “Grand Tour,” which will have its world premiere in Cannes Film Festival’s Competition section. Variety can also exclusively reveal that that distribution on “Grand Tour” will be handled in France by Tandem, and in Italy by Lucky Red, and that Gomes’ next film will be “Savagery.”

“Grand Tour” kicks off in 1917 in Burma. It centers on Edward, a civil servant for the British Empire, who runs away from his fiancée Molly the day she arrives to get married. During his travels, however, panic gives way to melancholy. Contemplating the emptiness of his existence, the cowardly Edward wonders what has become of Molly… Determined to get married and amused by Edward’s move, Molly follows his trail on this Asian grand tour.

The film stars Gonçalo Waddington and Crista Alfaiate, and the cast also includes...

The first image has been unveiled from Miguel Gomes’ upcoming late 1910s drama “Grand Tour,” which is being sold by The Match Factory. The film is currently shooting in Italy, and stars Gonçalo Waddington and Crista Alfaiate.

“Grand Tour” comes after the successful international sales and distribution of Gomes’ critically acclaimed features “Tabu,” “Arabian Nights” and “The Tsugua Diaries” – all titles sold by The Match Factory.

“Grand Tour” kicks off in Rangoon, Burma, 1917. Edward, a civil servant for the British Empire, runs away from his fiancée Molly the day she arrives to get married. During his travels, however, panic gives way to melancholy. Contemplating the emptiness of his existence, the cowardly Edward wonders what has become of Molly… Yet Molly, determined to get married and amused by his move, follows his trail on this Asian grand tour.

The creative process for the film began with a research trip to various countries in Asia.

Chris Evans and his girlfriend Alba Baptista made their love Instagram official on Valentine’s Day with Evans sharing a sweet slideshow of their cutest moments together. The photos included them on nature hikes, playing Super Mario Bros. and a hilarious moment where Evans drew a smiley face on her chin.

The Avengers star has been dating Baptista for over a year.

The relationship is reportedly very serious and the pair are very in love.

In Memoriam 2022: 100 Great Celebrities Who Died In 2022

Evans has kept his relationships private for the most part.

He was previously linked to Jenny Slate, Minka Kelly and Jessica Biel. The actor reportedly is intent on settling down and starting a family.

Baptista is an actor as well. She then starred in several films in Portugal including Caminhos Magnétykos and Equinócio.

In 2019 she appeared in the film Patrick, the directorial debut of Gonçalo Waddington, which...

Exclusive: UTA has signed Portuguese actress Alba Baptista, who has the lead role in upcoming Netflix fantasy series Warrior Nun.

Lisbon-born Baptista most recently starred in Marco Pontecorvo’s upcoming feature Fatima opposite Harvey Keitel, as well as Gonçalo Waddington’s drama Patrick, which was in competition at San Sebastián.

In Simon Barry’s (Ghost Wars) Warrior Nun, which is inspired by Manga novels, she will play a 19-year-old woman who wakes up in a morgue with a new lease on life and a divine artifact embedded in her back. She discovers she is part of an ancient order that has been tasked with fighting demons on Earth, and powerful forces representing both heaven and hell want to find and control her.

Additionally, Baptista has appeared in Edgar Pêra’s film Caminhos Magnétyko, Hugo Diogo’s Imagens Proibidas and had a recurring role in Portuguese telenovela Jogo Duplo.

She continues...

San Sebastian — Sales house The Match Factory is launching exclusively via Variety the trailer of “Patrick,” Gonçalo Waddington’s debut feature, as the film world premieres in the Official Selection at the San Sebastian Festival.

Screening in main competition, “Patrick” recounts the story of an eight-year old Portuguese boy, Mario, who is re-discovered years later after being imprisoned in a Parisian jail, aged 20, now called Patrick. It is loosely inspired by the true-life story of an 11-year old child called Rui Pedro who was abducted in Portugal in 1998 and never found.

Patrick has become a borderline criminal who lives with Mark, a 45-year old artist in Paris, having been involved in child pornography since his abduction. He must choose between a lengthy prison sentence or returning to his family in Portugal where, because of his abduction, he would be given a much softer sentence.

Lead actor Hugo Fernandes, a French thesp of Portuguese origin,...

The other new titles are directed by Malgorzata Szumowska, Paxton Winters, Sonthar Gyal and Gonçalo Waddington.

The San Sebastian Film Festival (September 20-28) has added six new titles that will compete for its 2019 Golden Shell award.

Among the additions are Sarah Gavron’s Rocks, which has its world premiere at Toronto. The film marks Gavron’s third feature after Suffragette and Brick Lane, and follows a teenager who fears she and her little brother will be forced apart if anyone finds out they are living alone.

Other new titles include astronaut drama Proxima from Mustang director Alice Winocour, starring Eva Green...

The Darren Aronofsky-produced Brazilian title “Pacified,” by American director Paxton Winters, Alice Winocour’s French-German astronaut drama “Proxima” and Polish film director Małgorzata Szumowska’s religious thriller “The Other Lamb” are among the six final competition selections for September’s 67th San Sebastian Film Festival.

Also vying for San Sebastian’s Golden Shell will be U.K. drama “Rocks,” from “Suffragette” director Sarah Gavron, Sonthar Gyal’s Chinese production “Lhamo And Skalbe” and Gonçalo Waddington’s Portuguese-German kidnap mystery “Patrick.”

Adding three works from female filmmakers, San Sebastian has brought the number of competition contenders directed by women to six, just over one-third of the section.

“Pacified,” starring Bukassa Kabengele, Cassia Nascimento and José Loreto, centers on the friendship between a street-smart 13-year-old girl and an ex-trafficker who live in a Rio favela.

In “Proxima,” Eva Green stars as an astronaut and single mother who signs up for a year-long space mission,...

Founded in 1998, O Som e a Furia is one of Portugal’s leading production companies, and has produced works by Portuguese auteurs such as Miguel Gomes, Ivo Ferreira, Sandro Aguilar, and João Nicolau.

Owned by Luís Urbano and Sandro Aguilar, the company has developed a clear editorial line dedicated to Portuguese and foreign auteurs who develop films with crossover potential that can succeed on the international festival circuit.

Over the past two decades the company has worked with a consistent group of directors and has developed a network of regular co-production partners, in particular in France, Germany, Brazil and Switzerland.

Urbano says that one of his key contributions is at a curatorial level: “We aim to work with directors who have a distinctive point of view and to evolve with them over their careers. In the case of a new director, I can help them create a distinctive mark.”

In...

Despite producing only around 15 feature films per year, Portuguese cinema has consistently won significant festival prizes.

In 2018, awards for Portuguese films included Cannes’ Critics’ Week winner, “Diamantino” by Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt, and “The Dead and the Others” by João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora, which took a Special Jury Prize at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

Portuguese filmmakers have survived through a mixture of dedication, creative ingenuity and co-productions. Amid economic crisis, in 2012, the situation seemed dire, with Portugal’s National Film and Audiovisual Institute (Ica) unable to open any funding lines.

However a 2012 film law, revised in 2014, provided new revenues for the Ica by introducing levies on subscription TV services. As a result, the Ica has been able to channel significant additional funding into the domestic industry, including new support programs for TV series and animation features.

Investment obligations for domestic broadcasters have also been upped including reinforced commitments for public broadcaster,...

On May 14, Acid Trip #2, an initiative of the Association for Independent Film Distribution, is dedicated to Portuguese cinema. It will screen three films selected by the Portuguese Directors’ Association (Apr) – Pedro Cabeleira’s “Damned Summer”, Teresa Villaverde’s “Colo” and Leonor Teles’ “Terra Franca.”

The Apr’s note accompanying the selection stated that Portugal’s cinema is “persistent and resilient, and despite production difficulties, it invents its own conditions to continue to exist and create.”

Portuguese films in at Cannes this year include Un Certain Regard-player “The Dead and the Others” by João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora, acquired for sales by Paris-based Luxbox; Carlos Diegues’ “The Great Mystical Circus”, sold by Latido Films; soccer-themed “Diamantino”, by Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt, which could be a break out in Critics’ Week; and short film “Amor, Avenidas Novas”, by Duarte Coimbra, again playing in Critics’ Week; and Terry Gilliam’s closing pic,...

Spanning more than six hours, spread across three films, "Tabu" director Miguel Gomes' "Arabian Nights" will test the stamina (and scheduling) of moviegoers and press at Cannes. His latest film will unspool as part of the Cannes Directors' Fortnight, and today we get a three-minute glimpse of the epic movie he's preparing to unveil. Crista Alfaiate, Adriano Luz, Américo Silva, Carloto Cotta, Crista Alfaiate, Chico Chapas, Luísa Cruz, Gonçalo Waddington, Joana de Verona, Teresa Madruga, and Jing Jing Guo are among the cast in the film which uses the classic fables to paint a portrait of contemporary Portugal, with stories that look to span a variety of social, political, and economic settings. Here's the official synopsis for all three volumes: Volume 1, The Restless One In which Scheherazade tells of the restlessness that befell the country: “It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that in a sad country among all countries,...

Bruno Dumont is joining the ranks of acclaimed filmmakers trading in the big screen for the home screen. Set to develop a police drama for French network Arte, this will be his first foray into television. Dumont’s work, which includes L’humanité (1999) and Hors Satan (2011), has long been controversial and his filmmaking practises have challenged audiences through their intimate approach to violence and sex, and an unconventional sense of spiritualism.

Though popular on the arthouse circuit, Bruno Dumont has yet to find popularity in the mainstream. So is it just wishful thinking to believe that Dumont’s efforts could work to help open up foreign language television to new audiences? It seems as though the next big step for television is to be globalized, as most of us (at least in North America) are still dominated almost completely by the American market. Other English language programs squeak in, but...