The international film festival Fantasporto is returning to Porto today for its 39th edition, which runs until 03 March under the theme “Challenges of Modernity“.
The festival, which takes place at the Municipal Theater Rivoli, today has its pre-opening, to mark the 50 years of ‘Easy Rider’, with the official opening film on Friday, ‘Prospect’ by Zeek Earl and Chris Caldwell, already awarded this year’s SXSW.
On Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, ‘The Shining’ and ‘Mechanical Orange’ will be screened to mark the 90th birthday of director Stanley Kubrick.
To close the festival on March 2 will be ‘The Russian Bride’, Michael S. Ojeda, including, along with the opening film, the fantastic film competition with a total of 19 works, in which find the latest work by Peter Strickland and Kim Ki-Duk, a South Korean director this year accused by several actresses of rape, sexual abuse and sexually aggressive behavior.
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.
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.
Back also are the Orient Express section and the prizes of the Portuguese cinema and best film school.
According to the director, 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.
The festival will also receive two retrospectives: one on the change of the female face in Taiwan in the 1960s and another on the new Hungarian generation.
Fantasporto will screen Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ on Friday to mark the film’s 40th anniversary.
“Fantasporto’s logic 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, over these almost 40 years, have been right, “said festival director Mario Dorminsky at a press conference at the end of January.
