Guadalajara Film Festival starts today. Portugal is the guest country

According to the organization, as the country is the guest of the 40th edition, the festival has a special section dedicated to Portuguese cinema, "from classics to more contemporary filmography", including films by Pedro Costa, Manoel de Oliveira and José Álvaro Morais.

There is also a tribute planned to actress and director Maria de Medeiros, "one of the most beloved and admired personalities in European cinema, music and culture", with the screening of films in which she starred, such as "Silvestre", by João César Monteiro, and which she directed, with "Capitães de Abril".

The festival programme will also feature the screening of the animated film "Os demônios do meu avó", by Nuno Beato, and an exhibition of miniature characters used in the stop-motion animation process, plus a masterclass by director João Gonzalez, author of the award-winning "Ice Merchants".

The selection of more than thirty films that provide an overview of Portuguese cinema, with documentaries and fiction in short and feature length, includes, among others, "A Fábrica de Nada" (2017), by Pedro Pinho, "Trás-os-Montes" (1976), by António Reis and Margarida Cordeiro, "Maria do Mar" (1930), by Leitão de Barros, "A Noite" (1999) by Regina Pessoa, and "As Fado Bicha" (2024), by Justine Lemahieu.

"A Savana e a Montanha", a film by Paulo Carneiro that addresses the struggle of the transmontane community of Covas do Barroso against lithium exploration in the region, is a candidate for the award for best Ibero-American documentary feature film.

This section also includes "Tardes de solidão", by the Spanish Albert Serra, co-produced by Portugal, about Spanish bullfighting, and "Ouro negro", by the Japanese Takashi Sugimoto, produced by Uma Pedra no Sapato and filmed in India, about a commercial tradition of black hair for women.

The Ibero-American short film competition features "Flying Carpet", a film directed and produced by Justin Amorim, "based on one of the many true stories of the biggest case of institutionalized pedophilia in Portugal", as the synopsis states.

"Dreaming with Lions", by Paolo Marinou-Blanco, a black comedy about euthanasia, is in the official section of Ibero-American fiction feature films.

The film "Duas vezes João Liberada", by Paula Tomás Marques, is competing for the Maguey Prize, which celebrates LGBT cinematography. It is about a fictional character who could have existed: someone persecuted and marginalized during the Inquisition for having led a life that did not correspond to the norms of the time regarding sexuality and gender.

The film "Two ships", by the American McKinley Benson, co-produced by Cola Animation, is a candidate for the award for best animated short film, and "La memoria de las mariposas", by the Peruvian Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski, co-produced by Portuguese Oublaum Filmes, is competing for the socio-environmental cinema award.

The 40th edition of the festival ends on June 14th.