The 39th edition of the Porto Fantasporto International Film Festival, which returns to the Rivoli Theater from February 19 to March 8, features “36 previews” on a poster dedicated to the challenges of modernity, organizers said.
“We are going to have 36 previews and the exhibitions will address the issues of the environment, technology, health, dehumanization, societies and the fight against radicalism,” said Beatriz Pacheco Pereira, during the presentation of the festival, which took place this afternoon at the Cinema Novo, in Porto.
The 39th edition of Fantasporto returns to the Rivoli Theater with 82 sessions and almost two hundred films, after a selection of about “600 films from 59 countries“.
On the first day, February 19, the festival will be pre-opening to honour 50 years of Dennis Hopper’s classic ‘Easy Rider’ and officially kicks off with Zeek Earl and Chris Caldwell’s ‘Prospect’.
The organization of the festival also decided to “honour and celebrate” the 90th birthday and 20th anniversary of the death of British director Stanley Kubrick, showing the films ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and ‘The Shining’. The section of the classics of the festival also features the exhibition of ‘Alien’, which celebrates 40 years.
“The logic of Fantasporto is to maintain our brand, a brand that also goes through the discovery of new directors. We have been the festival that is known for the films that have been shown, which reveals that our bets, throughout these almost 40 years, have been right, ” said Mario Dorminsky.
In addition to “Prospect” and “The Russian Bride” by Michael S. Ojeda, which marks the closing, the fantastic film competition has 18 more works, including Peter Strickland and Kim Ki-Duk, a South Korean director this year accused by several actresses of rape, sexual abuse and sexually aggressive behaviour.
If in the competition of feature films of the fantastic cinema there are no Portuguese present, there being only one Brazilian film in lusófona representation, in the of short films are “Bluebird“, of Amanda Sant’Anna, Carlos Fernandes, Gonçalo Veloso, João Lage and João Mendes, and ‘Mysteries of the Wild’, by Rui Veiga.
According to Beatriz Pacheco Pereira, this edition of the Portuguese film festival also has a “record number of Portuguese participation“, bringing 57 Portuguese films to the competition.
“There is a concern to make for Portuguese cinema what the entities do not do, which is to encourage the making of films and projecting young talents,” he said.
This year, Fantasporto has films from ten Portuguese entities, including the University of Beira Interior, the University of Madeira and the Portuguese Institute of Photography. In turn, for the Portuguese Film Award – Best Film, the organization selected 12 productions.
In the filmmakers’ week, the highlight is the documentary ‘The Panama Papers’ by Alex Winter, which features director Laura Poitras as Executive Producer, winner of the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2015 with Citizenfour, about Edward Snowden.
The 39th edition of Fantasporto, which also marks the return of the Orient Express section, will be based on two retrospectives: one on the change of the face of women in Taiwan in the 1960s, and another on the new Hungarian generation.
During the presentation, the organizers also revealed that, regarding the 40th edition of Fantasporto, in 2020 the festival will take place between February 25 and March 8 at Teatro Rivoli.
“Fantasporto has to continue to be held in Porto because it was a festival that has emerged here and will continue to be here. We are a festival of the North,” added Mario Dorminsky.
