13/05/2019 - Part of IndieLisboa’s industry events, the Portuguese Film Fund is dedicated to post-production support

The Portuguese Film Fund session in progress at IndieLisboa

The winners of this year’s edition of the Portuguese Film Fund have been announced. Eight projects were selected, encompassing several genres, different forms and a broad variety of themes, and six of them were lucky enough to be awarded post-production support. The Portuguese Film Fund was part of IndieLisboa’s (2-12 May) industry events.

18, directed by Rui Esperança, was awarded the DocNomads Prize (€1,500, intended for a documentary) and was also one of the winners of the Digital Mix Música e Imagem Prize (sound post-production services for a feature film and a short film). This short documentary – presently at the sound editing and mixing stage – is being produced by Fora de Campo Filmes, and portrays the struggles, thoughts and routines of students who are graduating from high school, focusing particularly on two best friends who are uncertain about their ability to stay together in the near future. This coming-of-age documentary is being made with a very personal approach, thanks to the director’s close connection with these students, the high school itself and the topic in question (given that his last film, The Useless, part of this year’s IndieLisboa National Short Film Competition, focused on the current state of mind – and the lives – of Portuguese youngsters after college).

Soldier Nobre (at the offline editing stage) was also awarded the Digital Mix Música e Imagem Prize. Produced by Kintop and directed by Jorge Vaz Gomes, Soldier Nobre is a documentary that started out as a personal project and anthropological investigation, all thanks to one photograph and the director’s desire to understand and uncover the mysteries – and the image – of his late great-grandfather, Francisco Nobre, a soldier who fought in France during World War I.

The GDA Foundation Prize, comprising €6,000 for the creation of an original score for three short films, was awarded to Colmeal, directed by Márcio Laranjeira and Sérgio Braz de Almeida, Poise, directed by Luís Soares, and Reynard, directed by Leonor Noivo. Colmeal (currently at the rough-cut stage) is a fiction film about a young man who lives in a rural village and becomes obsessed by a woman who comes from the city to spend her holidays in his town. The movie is inspired by the director’s own experience as a man living in the countryside, and is intended to be a hyperbolic mirror reflecting the state of this man’s mind – someone who is unable to deal with his emotions or communicate with women. Poise (in the final stages of animation and with painting still in progress) is an animated film by Luís Soares, produced by Filmes do Gajo, which, through its examination of a male main character, illustrates the inner state of a person who is incapable of making decisions: time stands still and nothing happens whilst this man is stuck in his own indecision, in a film that perpetuates a feeling that time is indefinite. Leonor Noivo’s Reynard (at the editing stage), produced by Terratreme, is a film about the obsessions of a young woman with a behavioural disorder. Noivo was inspired by the story of a woman who currently lives isolated in a remote part of the Serra da Estrela and who has her own obsessions: this was the starting point for building the main character, in a personal film that explores her inner self as well as the – soulless but natural – world that surrounds her.

Another short film produced by Terratreme was awarded The Yellow Color Prize, which consists of two days in a post-production studio: the short in question was Rare Bird (at the sound editing and mixing stage) by Vasco Saltão. Saltão’s first film was shot in three weeks, in a small village in Alentejo (in the south of Portugal), with one professional actor and people from the village. Inspired by The Fall of the Rebel Angels, a painting by Pieter Bruegel, this film depicts the story of a man – a modern-day fallen angel – in a recognisable but uncanny universe.

The jury of the Portuguese Film Fund’s eighth edition was made up of David Santos/Noiserv (musician), Maria Delgado (BFI programme advisor), Fabianny Deschamps (director and artistic advisor) and Weronika Czolnowska (head of industry at the New Horizons Film Festival). The Portuguese Film Fund was integrated for the first time into IndieLisboa's Lisbon Screenings programme, a three-day industry event that showcased some of the most promising Portuguese films. Some were from IndieLisboa’s competition, such as Phantom Power by Afonso Mota, Invisible Hero by Cristèle Alves Meira and Sacavém by Júlio Alves, while others were unfinished projects or were in post-production, such as Cíntia Gil’s Foreign Legion and Luísa Homem’s Suzanne Daveu.

Here is the list of the winning films:

DocNomads Prize (ULHT)
18 - Rui Esperança
Producer: Fora de Campo Filmes

Digital Mix Música e Imagem Prize
18 - Rui Esperança
Producer: Fora de Campo Filmes

Soldier Nobre - Jorge Vaz Gomes
Producer: Kintop

GDA Foundation Prize
Colmeal - Márcio Laranjeira, Sérgio Braz d’Almeida

Poise - Luís Soares
Producer: Filmes do Gajo

Reynard - Leonor Noivo
Producer: Terratreme

The Yellow Color Prize
Rare Bird - Vasco Saltão
Producer: Terratreme