The director, who had previously directed the short film ‘Metáfora ou Tristeza Virada do Avesso’, was also distinguished with the festival’s Young Jury Prize, aimed at filmmakers at the beginning of their careers.
The jury of the main competition for this year’s edition, composed of filmmakers and producers Gema Juarez Allen (Argentina), José Luis Torres Leiva (Chile), Diego Pino Anguita (Chile), and Rachel Daisy Ellis (Brazil), unanimously decided to assign the highest award of the festival to the Portuguese filmmaker, for his ability to transform the history of family heritage into a poetic and personal look.
FIDOCS, founded by the Chilean filmmaker, documentary filmmaker Patrício Guzmán, director of ‘O Nacar Button’ and ‘Nostalgia of Light‘, is considered one of the most important documentary cinema meetings in Latin America. ‘A Metamorfose dos Pássaros’, a production of the First Age that is expected to debut in Portugal in 2021, has been in international circulation for more than 40 festivals and film shows, where it has collected several awards.
The film’s narrative crosses documentary and fiction, part of the director’s family history, in particular the paternal grandmother, who she never got to know. In February, at the world premiere of this work, at the Berlin Film Festival, the film won the International Critics Award.
Since then, he has won distinctions such as the Best Film Award at the Vilnius Festival (Lithuania), the Special Jury Award at the Taipei Festival (Taiwan), the Best Film Award at the Dokufest Festival (Kosovo) and the Zabaltegi Award – Tabakalera, at the San Sebastián Film Festival (Spain).
At the beginning of September, he won the audience award at IndieLisboa, which was followed, in October, by the audience and artistic contribution awards at the Curitiba Film Festival (Brazil), in addition to his debut in Austria, within the scope of Viennale – Festival Vienna Film Festival.
In November, the film was also twice awarded, winning the Grand Prize and the Audience Award, from the 20th edition of the New Horizons festival.
According to Portugal Filme – International Portuguese Cinema Agency, which has the distribution of “The Metamorphosis of the Birds”, the film will have a commercial debut in China, Spain, Lithuania, Italy and Poland and, soon, also in the United States , Taiwan, United Kingdom, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and German-speaking countries.
In Portugal, ‘A Metamorfose dos Pássaros’ debuts in the first half of 2021, according to a statement from Portugal Film released today.
A mix of documentary and fiction, Catarina Vasconcelos’ film features photography by Paulo Menezes, sound by Adriana Bolito and Rafael Cardoso, and editing by Francisco Moreira.
‘The Metamorphosis of the Birds’ is a production of the First Age, by Pedro Fernandes Duarte and Joana Gusmão. The cast of actors includes friends and family of Catarina Vasconcelos, as well as the director herself.
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