Best Portuguese Feature Films - Instituto Camões
This is a list composed by sound feature films, commissioned by Instituto Camões. Instituto Camões (English: Camões Institute) is an institution created in 1992 for the promotion of the Portuguese language and culture world-wide. Instituto Camões has administrative and patrimonial autonomy, that, under the supervision of the Portuguese Minister of the Foreign Affairs, assures the co-ordination and execution of the external cultural policies of Portugal. The list was organized by José de Matos-Cruz, a Portuguese writer, journalist, editor, high-school teacher, investigator, encyclopedist. Since 1980 he works at the Cinemateca Portuguesa (Portuguese Film Archive), in Lisbon. He is a prominent historian of the Portuguese cinema.
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- DirectorJosé Leitão de BarrosStarsDina TeresaAntónio Luis LopesAntonio LavradioThe (too brief) life, the (ardent) loves and the (too early) death of Maria Severa Onofirana (1820-1846), better known as "A Severa", a beautiful gypsy who, besides being a prostitute, sang in the taverns of the Mouraria area in Lisbon, and is said to have created the "Fado" style.
- DirectorJosé Cottinelli TelmoStarsVasco SantanaBeatriz CostaAntónio SilvaAfter flunking in medical school, the young and bohemian Vasco need to trick his aunts, the main financers of his studies, preventing them to know that he is not a doctor.
- DirectorJosé Leitão de BarrosStarsJoaquim AlmadaMaria MatosAntónio SilvaAdaptation of a novel by Júlio Dinis, depicting the romantic and rustic life in Portugal, circa 1863.
- DirectorJosé Leitão de BarrosStarsMirita CasimiroAntónio SilvaEduardo FernandesA humble country girl moves to the city to work as a maid, eventually finding love and adventure.
- DirectorChianca de GarciaStarsBeatriz CostaManuel Santos CarvalhoJosé AmaroThe story of how Gracinda, a young washerwoman, tries to revitalize her decadent business with the help of Chico, for whom she's in love, and her uncle, who has a fiery rivalry with Quitéria, owner of another laundry business.
- DirectorJorge Brum do CantoStarsElsa RuminaBarreto PoeiraÓscar de LemosIn Porto Santo, a small island next to Madeira the drought rages and Gonçalves, a local farmer, tries to overcome the catastrophe, with the help of Bastiana, whom he dearly loves. João Venâncio, who refuses to share the water of his field, tries to steal her heart. One day Gonçalves decides to fight for his beloved, beating violently Venâncio in front of an enthusiastic crowd.
- DirectorJorge Brum do CantoStarsÓscar de LemosMaria DomingasAntónio SilvaJoão Ratão is a Portuguese soldier in the Flandres battle-front,
- DirectorAntónio Lopes RibeiroStarsVasco SantanaFrancisco RibeiroLeonor MaiaFrancisco, salesman in a shoe store, is totally in love with Tatão, which sells perfume in the same street. But he is an amateur theater actor, as she hates theater and is a fan of cinema. Will this unlikely love endure?
- DirectorFrancisco RibeiroStarsMaria das NevesVasco SantanaAntónio SilvaThis classic of Portuguese cinema depicts the friendships and rivalries of the inhabitants of a square in downtown Lisbon, where exists a spirit of familiarity between neighbors.
- DirectorJosé Leitão de BarrosStarsIlidio Rocha SilvestreElsa Bea-FlorJoão MoçoIn a village of poor fishermen in the North of Portugal, João Moço and Julha fall in love. Unfortunately they belong to two different fisher castes and the community as well as their respective families condemn their love...
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsNascimento FernandesVital dos SantosAntónio PalmaThe story takes place in the old streets of Porto and by the banks of the Douro River. A gang of very young kids has just accepted a new member, Carlitos, a shy boy who has "played it tough" by stealing a doll in a shop. Carlitos soon has a crush on Terezinha, the only girl in the group. The trouble is that Eduardo, the gang boss, is also in love with the pretty girl. And he will not allow any rival to challenge him.
- DirectorAntónio Lopes RibeiroStarsIgrejas CaeiroEunice ColbertEmilia D'OliveiraThe fatalism caught up and the amorous tragedy between Teresa de Albuquerque and Simão Botelho, who survives the intolerant litigation of her noble families.
- DirectorArthur DuarteStarsAntónio SilvaMaria MatosMilúThe unlikely love between Luisinha, a humble girl who lives on a small pension in Lisbon, and Daniel, a wealthy aristocrat who decides to fight for the girl who loves against the prejudices of his family.
- DirectorArthur DuarteStarsMaria MatosAntónio SilvaMaria EugéniaGeninha and Fortunato are couple who loves music. He's a good songwriter, she sings well. Despite this, their parents hate each other and do not seem willing to allow their marriage, nor the creation of a local radio for them.
- DirectorJosé Leitão de BarrosStarsAntonio VilarAlicia PalaciosMaría Dolores PraderaDom Pedro, heir to the Portuguese crown, is married to a Castilian princess but falls in love for his wife's maid. In addition to sin and scandal, can they survive the political implications of their romance?
- DirectorJosé Leitão de BarrosStarsAntonio VilarJosé AmaroIgrejas CaeiroThe adventurous life of Portugal's epic poet, Luis de Camões.
- DirectorArmando de MirandaStarsAmália RodriguesAlberto RibeiroArtur AgostinhoIn Coimbra, law student José Duarte and Maria de Lisboa lived a romance which ends when he goes away, achieving fame and fortune by singing. But she's pregnant and they will meet again when she's arrested by allegedly abandoning their son.
- DirectorPerdigão QueirogaStarsAmália RodriguesVasco SantanaAntónio SilvaAna Maria was a modest young woman who loves Júlio, her guitarist. But when she becomes a famous singer and Júlio, feeling abandoned by her, decides to go to the African colonies, she will have to choose between fame and true love.
- DirectorArthur DuarteStarsAntónio SilvaMilúMaria EugéniaAnastácio lives in Lisbon and is fanatic for Sporting, one of the city's football teams. When the team travels to face Porto, he follows it with the family, staying in house of his friend, Mr. Barata, pretending to be rich.
- DirectorFernando GarciaStarsÓscar AcúrcioSilva AraújoRaul de CarvalhoA thin thread of fiction, linking inserts of non-original documentary footage of Portuguese cod-fishers off the rich coasts of Newfoundland and Groenland. Heroic fights against raging seas and winds, deep fog and cold, plus a fire aboard. A man's world, where sometimes a woman in male dress does her share of work like a man...
- DirectorAntónio Lopes RibeiroStarsMaria SampaioMaría DulceRaul de CarvalhoTwenty years after her husband disappears in combat, Madalena is married again but fears the return of her first husband, as this would annul her marriage, his happiness and turn her daughter into a bastard. A classic of Portuguese cinema.
- DirectorManuel GuimarãesStarsMaria OlguimHelga LinéArtur SemedoLives of circus performers in times of decay.
- DirectorJorge Brum do CantoStarsArtur SemedoLourdes NorbertoMaria Emília VilasFrom the military planning to front-line operations of discover conquest of Mozambique by the Portuguese, to counter the Vatuas insurgency of 1894, when they were led by Gungunhana, a cunning strong African leader. Against the background of Marracuene, Coolela, Manjacaze, Chaimite and Macontene historical battles, two soldiers fight for the love of a coloni st's daughter.
- DirectorHenrique CamposStarsMariana VillarCurado RibeiroAlves da CostaPassion and ambition interplay to bring dissention and tragedy into the home of an old fisherman married to a much younger woman.
- DirectorManuel GuimarãesStarsMaria de Fátima BravoJacinto RamosAlina VazAurora is a modest young girl, working as dressmaker for the women her popular district, near the OPorto cathedral. One day, through a hintz-dress design competition, she gets involved with a haut couture atelier.
- DirectorAntónio Lopes RibeiroStarsAntonio VilarDanik PatissonAura AbranchesDuring the absence of Jorge, a mining engineer, Luísa, his wife, allowed himself to be seduced by Basílio, a relative whom he had broken years before, who had gone to Brazil.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsNicolau Nunes Da SilvaErmelinda PiresMaria MadalenaLocal people of Curalha, a small village, keep a tradition of representing the Passion of Jesus, since and according to a 16th text.
- DirectorErnesto de SousaStarsRaul SolnadoGlicínia QuartinLuís CerqueiraJoão Barbela is poor man who lives out of charity - what coins the people of Lisbon's popular districts give him as 'pay' for his puppeteering work. For the kids, he is like a king, Dom Roberto = puppet). When he meets Maria, an equally poor girl, he fancies to change her life, and get her a house, maybe marrying, and being happy together.Life does not exactly have a happy ending, like he managed with his puppets 5-minute plays...
- DirectorPaulo RochaStarsRui GomesIsabel RuthRuy Furtado19-year-old Julio has just left the provinces to settle down in the outskirts of Lisbon. He lives in a poor area with his uncle Afonso and starts working as an apprentice shoemaker. At the shop he gets to know Ilda, a young housemaid and regular customer. Ilda is pretty, joyful, and modern, and Julio falls for her. The two young people, although very different from each other, embark on an idyll.
- DirectorFernando LopesStarsBelarmino FragosoJean Pierre GeblerMaria Teresa de NoronhaInterview with a has-been boxing champion «who could have been great», probing, and soul revealing.
- DirectorAntónio de MacedoStarsIsabel de CastroRuy de CarvalhoIsabel RuthReflections on life and death through the eyes of a medicine doctor, researcher on blood deseases, under the anguish of consulting a terminally ill young woman.
- DirectorPaulo RochaStarsGeraldo Del ReyIsabel RuthMaria BarrosoAfter a stint in the army fighting in Angola, a soldier comes home to find his sweetheart has married his brother. He makes advances towards his sister-in-law, but she turns him down. Discouraged, the man meets a new girlfriend who vows to escape the town's crushing poverty even if she has to steal. The two begin a relationship but the film does not indicate what their future may hold.
- DirectorAntónio da Cunha TellesStarsMaria CabralMiguel FrancoRuy de CarvalhoA look at the urban society of the seventies. The story of Marta a young and pretty girl, who leaves her husband to search for her true identity. She doesn't quite know what she wants, but at least she knows what she's escaping from. Soon she encounters financial difficulties and finds herself involved with shady characters, a situation that leads to a mysterious murder. The net closes around her.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsMaria de SaissetManuela de FreitasBárbara VieiraVanda is a young widow, with a number of marriages past her, who tends to venerate each deceased husband, as much as she betrays and denigrates the present one.
- DirectorAlfredo TropaStarsAntónio MontezErmelinda DuarteJorge RamalhoPedro is a young agricultural worker who gets caught in the middle of a fight between two families, kills a man and escapes to the capital. He can't find work,resorts to begging, but keeps his mountaineer pride. He starts a new life with a prostitute who is nice to him, but nothing works. He returns home, and alone, and now he finds life there is sad as well.
- DirectorFernando LopesStarsLaura SoveralJoão GuedesZita DuarteA married couple of rich and depressed noblemen destroy the lives of their servants out of spite.
- DirectorFernando Matos SilvaStarsJoão MotaMaria do Céu GuerraZita DuarteThe Soares are a bourgeois couple, living in a good neighbourhood of Lisbon, but João, their son, is not integrating well in that pattern. He attends more political meetings than classes at the Faculty of Economy, and gets a job but that's short lived because his female boss makes him her lover. He longs for the coffee shops, and the companions of old, but he doesn't get true love from anyone.
- DirectorAntónio-Pedro VasconcelosStarsJosé CunhaMarta LeitãoJosé Nuno MartinsArtur, in Lisbon for his holidays, wanders aimlessly, and is picked-up by Rui, a young man who is into marketing and advertising. Joana is in Lisbon for holidays, but also trying to escape from a mysterious, dark passion. Artur and Joana come together, find common roots in their rural background, but their union comes to an end, as someone from Joana's past interferes.
- DirectorEduardo GeadaStarsIo AppolloniLuísa NunesCarlos FerreiraAfter her mother's death, Sofia returns from a Swiss college to her family's luxurious villa, in Cascais. Through the relashionship between her father, Henrique, and his lover Laura, she will discover the complexity, egothistic, discrete and hypocrite way of life - from which there is no escape.
- DirectorAlberto Seixas SantosStarsLuís SantosDalila RochaIsabel de CastroA portrait of the everyday life of a typical middle-class family in parallel with the fall of the "Estado Novo", the 48-year dictatorship led by Salazar. The daughters' conflicts and frustrations with their parents, their grandmother and their maid find an obvious echo in the country's collective events. The Carnation Revolution is about to explode.
- DirectorManuel Costa e SilvaAntónio da Cunha TellesAcácio de AlmeidaStarsFernando BalsinhaÁlvaro CunhalAdelino GomesFilm directors with hand-held cameras went to the streets of Lisbon from April 25 to May 1, 1974, registering interviews and political events of the Portuguese "Carnations Revolution", as that period would be later known.
- DirectorJosé Fonseca e CostaStarsAntónio BeringelaAna ZanattiSérgio GodinhoThrough the decadence of a once noble and rich family, unable to plan the future of their members and the application of their resources, one can see the decadence of the Portuguese empire, starting with a badly planned invasion of Africa in Alkacer Kibir (Maroc, 1577).
- DirectorRui SimõesStarsRui Paulo da CruzJosé Mário BrancoÁlvaro CunhalThe history of Portugal since the Republican revolution of 1910 to the revolutionary period following the military coup of April 24, 1974, recounted with a marxist perspective, using historic sound and film documents. The title refers to a trilogy of values proclaimed by Salazar, prime minister of Portugal in 1936.
- DirectorJosé de Sá CaetanoStarsFrançoise ArielKeith JamesBrian RalphDuring World War II, during a misty morning, near a fishermen's village, four children come across two RAF pilots ejected from a plane that crashed in the sea.
- DirectorMargarida CordeiroAntónio ReisStarsAlbino S. PedroCarlos MargaridoMariana MargaridoIt's a docudrama with a poetic writing and non-linear narrative. Specifically, it's an "etnofiction": portraits the typical characters of Terra Fria, the North-east of Portugal, showing secular habits, in a majestic rural ambient. It's one of the works that represents the New Cinema (Novo Cinema) portuguese movement, and one of the first portuguese docudrama.
- StarsAntónio Sequeira LopesCristina HauserElsa WallencampA story about doomed love between two people from different worlds and the impact in their lives.
- DirectorJosé Fonseca e CostaStarsMário ViegasLia GamaLuís LelloKilas is a pimp who lives happy with Pepsi-Rita, fading sex variety starlet, and both lives at the expense of his God-mother. Kilas is the elader of a small gang of tough guys, and the police is too busy to care. A mysterious Major - eventually from the secret police - approaches Kilas in order that his gang will set up a discreet vigilance on the house of a notorious anti-fascist person. Kilas is only happy to oblige, as he is being paid for the guys' work - until the contract is upped to place a bomb in the house. Now, that's too much even for a low pimp like Kilas! But - meanwhile he has a love dispute to settle with that house's owner; and that is a real psychological conflict that Kilas would wish not to have...
- DirectorLauro AntónioStarsEunice MuñozVergílio FerreiraCanto e CastroEstefãnia is an old, rich, strict catholic woman, and when she sets her eyes on a couple of servants who have no means to bring up properly their youngest son, António, she decides to move her influences in order to make a priest out of him. The parents accept it, the local priest and even the Seminar's rector accept it, and António accepts it - if not for piety, for obeyance to his parents. Once time goes by, and António is out of rural misery and into the prison-like system of a seminar, doubts and anguishes mount within him.
- DirectorJoão BotelhoStarsFernando Cabral MartinsAndré GomesJuliet BertoThe film was to be a documentary, but evolved during production to a fictional film. It nevertheless adheres strictly to the poems and letters exchanged by two of the most outstanding names of the Modernist Movement, Fernando Pessoa (in Lisbon) and Mário de Sá-Carneiro (in Paris). Their endless conversation was dramatically and suddenly terminated.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsTeresa MenezesDiogo DóriaMário BarrosoThe life of a young man, son of an English officer who lets himself become a prisoner of love resulting in fatalism and disgrace.
- DirectorJoão César MonteiroStarsMaria de MedeirosTeresa MadrugaLuís Miguel CintraThe daughters of a nobleman give shelter to a stranger. After that visit ends with a severed hand, the pilgrim takes on different identities to seek revenge. The nobleman goes missing and his youngest has to pose as a knight to save him.
- DirectorPaulo RochaStarsLuís Miguel CintraClara JoanaZita DuarteTheatrical drama influenced by the Portuguese medieval poem of the same name, about an island promised to Lusitanian warriors by the Goddess Venus.
- DirectorJosé Fonseca e CostaStarsVictoria AbrilSaul SantosArmando CortezA young man from a high-bourgeois family, Henrique receives mysterious phone calls from a woman at the barracks where he is serving in the military, which attracts him to meetings without consequences.
- DirectorArtur RamosStarsJosé VianaHelena FélixFernando LoureiroThe intimate conflicts of smugglers and vagabonds, along with the struggle of the peasants against the attempts of the bourgeoisie and the State, to take possession of the vacancies they cultivate.
- DirectorEduardo GeadaStarsEstrela NovaisLuís LucasHelder CostaDona Elvira promises to get a job from José through the typical Portuguese wedge. In parallel, they are bizarre aspects and eccentric figures of the city life, including the tragedy of the actress Maria Alves.
- DirectorJorge Brum do CantoStarsRolando AlvesMaria de Lourdes AyalaClarisse BeloMaduro, D. Lourenço manages to take away Joao Bolandas, to be with the woman, Florinda, his old love, that returns that feeling to him. Simão discovers the mother's connection with D. Lourenço and, from then on, only one desire guides him: to kill Florinda's lover.
- DirectorFernando LopesStarsNuno DuarteJoão PerryLia GamaLiving in expeditions, a gang of friendly Malandro Lisboetas is one day contacted by mysterious Italian (from the Mafia, it is assumed) to steal part of the Lalique Collection, at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Museum.
- DirectorAntónio-Pedro VasconcelosStarsAna ZanattiPedro OliveiraTeresa MadrugaAlvaro, a divorced journalist with a complicated love life, watches someone he doesn't know killing himself after a fight with a woman who he gave a lift. Intrigued by that mysterious sensual woman, he decides not to tell the police about the lift he gave her and investigates her by himself. He gets involved with her, but she remains too mysterious about her personal life. He ends up tangled in a web of murder, mystery and sex because of that woman, who he barely gets to know.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsLuís Miguel CintraPatricia BarzykAnne ConsignyDuring the century of the Spanish Gold, Doña Prouhèze, wife of a nobleman, deeply loves Don Rodrigo, who is forced to leave Spain and go to America. Meanwhile Prouhèze is sent to Africa to rule the city of Mogador. Ten years later Rodrigo leaves America and travels to Africa in search of Prouhèze to find out that she died and eventually meeting her daughter.
- DirectorLauro AntónioStarsAcácia ThieleJorge ValeGuida MariaJosé Pereira, a young medical graduate, meets a young and ardent Maria Eugénia. The time is the eve of the Portuguese Revolution, on 24th April 1974 and only a short time elapses between courtship and marriage. The young pair are very much in love, but José begins to have doubts about the "honesty" of such intense feelings of love, feelings which are too intense (or hot) to him . If Maria Eugénia is like this with him, will she be the same with other men?In the meantime, the Revolution takes its course. José, who previously had been persecuted because of his opposition against the old regime, now feels "left behind" and frustrated.
- DirectorJosé Fonseca e CostaStarsAssumpta SernaRaul SolnadoPatrick BauchauIn Portugal, in the 60s, the corpse of a man appears on Dog's Beach. The corpse is identified as the major Dantas, a man wanted by authorities after his escape from a military prison where he was awaiting trial for insurrection.
- DirectorJosé Álvaro MoraisStarsFernando HeitorPaula GuedesLuís LucasSet four years after the Portuguese revolution and the simultaneous loss of the Portuguese empire in Africa, the story concerns a director who sells guns to finance his play.
- DirectorLuis Vidal LopesStarsFilipe FerrerAntónio Caldeira PiresÁlvaro SimõesBased on the work by Fernando Pessoa - a "message" about the destinies of Portugal - not just in isolation but looking at them as precursors and announcers of the fate of the entire planet.
- DirectorJoão Mário GriloStarsCarlos DanielAurelle DoazanAntonino SolmerAt the time Portugal presented a strange spectacle to the rest of Europe. D. Afonso VI, son of the fortunate D. João de Bragança, was in possession of the throne and was an insane imbecile. His wife, daughter of the Duke of Nemours and cousin of Louis XIV, dared hatch a plot to oust her husband from the throne. The king's stupidity justified the queen's bravado. Despite being master of unusual strength and having slept with his wife for a long time, she accused him of being impotent. Marie Françoise had acquired through artfulness what Afonso had lost in anger in the kingdom. She had him imprisoned ( November 1667 ) and quickly obtained a papal bull from Rome to confirm her virginity and bless her marriage to her brother-in-law Pedro.
- DirectorJoão César MonteiroStarsJoão César MonteiroManuela de FreitasRuy FurtadoLisbon, 1989. A middle-aged poor idiot, tormented by an illness, lives in a cheap room in a family boarding house, in the old section of the city's waterfront.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsLuís Miguel CintraDiogo DóriaMiguel GuilhermeEpisodes from entire military history of Portugal are told through flashbacks as a professorish soldier recounts them while marching through a Portuguese African colony in 1973. He easily draws his comrades into philosophical musings, and the little contingent suffers badly at the hands of the local military opposition.
- DirectorAntónio-Pedro VasconcelosStarsLudmila MikaëlArnaud GiovaninettiJean-Pierre CasselAt the end of the nineteenth century, an army force led by Major Mouzinho de Albuquerque, a cavalry officer, imprisoned in Mozambique the great regulative Governor Gungunhana, who had rebelled against Portuguese government and sovereignty
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsTeresa MadrugaMário BarrosoLuís Miguel CintraPortrait of the last days of the life of Portuguese writer Camilo Castelo Branco.
- DirectorAntónio CamposStarsJoaquim de AlmeidaCristina MarcosMaria ArmindaIn the forties, in a little settlement lost amidst the mountains of Trás-os-Montes, Leonardo tries to survive by buying and selling marten and fox furs, dreaming of the day he'll close a big deal. His wife Ermelinda, the prettiest girl in the village, starts to work as a maid in the house of a man called Santiago, nicknamed American. His manners, charm and indirectly his wealth finally seduce her, and a child is born. To get rid of her the American gives her money and helps Leonardo close his much sough-after deal. Meanwhile the American concentrates his attention on Guida, a girl of 16 who also gets pregnant. Santiago decides to court Ermelinda again, and she kills him in a fit of rage. Ermelinda tells her husband she killed the American in self defence. Leonardo takes responsability for the crime and flees to Spain to the house of his friend Iglesias. Some time later Leonardo realises he is not the father of the child and leaves his refuge to confront Ermelinda.
- DirectorFernando LopesStarsClaude BrasseurAndréa FerréolAna PadrãoSpino, a pathologist, receives an unidentified body which looks familiar to him... himself, 30 years younger.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsLeonor SilveiraCécile Sanz de AlbaLuís Miguel CintraEma is a very attractive but innocent girl, so pretty that cars crash in her presence. Young marries Dr. Carlo Paiva, who she is not attracted to, but is her father's friend. They move to the Valley of Abraham. Carlo loves her, but decides to sleep in a separate room, to avoid waking Ema when he has to return late at night. With time she begins to feel unhappy about her marriage so, with all the freedom she has, she takes a lover.
- DirectorTeresa VillaverdeStarsMaria de MedeirosMarcello UrgegheEvgeniy SidikhinLisboa, Portugal, mid-1990s. Three brothers, a young woman and two young men, are living together, careless of the future, or even the present. They love each other, but one day they go separate ways. When Maria does need help, the three brothers will join again - but a trifle too late.
- DirectorJoaquim LeitãoStarsMaria de MedeirosJoaquim de AlmeidaKarra ElejaldeCatarina Menezes is a bisexual TV reporter who decides to have a child on her own and chooses Spanish humanitarian doctor Rafael to father the child, setting up an elaborate charade to lure him into her bed. When Catarina reveals her pregnancy, though, her current live-in girlfriend doesn't take to it kindly and promises to make Catarina's life hell; to make matters worse, Rafael finds out her true identity and comes to Lisbon to see her. And Catarina's sole refuge is in the arms of fellow journalist Francisco, her professional relationship slowly becoming a romantic one.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsCatherine DeneuveJohn MalkovichLuís Miguel CintraThe journey of Michael Padovic, an American professor who arrives with his wife, Helene, at a Portuguese convent where he expects to find the documents needed to prove his theory: Shakespeare was born in Spain; not in England.
- DirectorJoaquim SapinhoStarsCarla BolitoMarco DelgadoFrancisco NascimentoThe film is set in Lisbon, and tells the story of a day in the life of Rita and Paulo, a Portuguese young couple of the '90s. The fast changing city around them makes them wish to break with all traditions and live the day the get married (only civil marriage) like it is an ordinary day.
- DirectorLuís Filipe RochaStarsDiogo InfanteRuth GabrielMarcantonio Del CarloThe film presents us with a reflection on the Spanish Civil War in the Portuguese society, At a time when Salazar ruled.
- DirectorJosé Fonseca e CostaStarsPaulo PiresSinde FilipeVítor NorteIn the 1940s André escapes from prison and is forced to leave the country illegally. In Oporto some friends arrange him a man, Lambaça, who knows the border of Tras-os-Montes (village in the north of Portugal) with Spain, thanks to his smuggler activity.
- DirectorJoão Mário GriloStarsJosé AbreuGeraldine ChaplinAntónio CordeiroAfter being converted to Catholicism, Julião Nakaura is forced to prove his faith as the Shogun Court forces him to apostatize.
- DirectorLuís Galvão TelesStarsMiou-MiouCarmen MauraMarthe KellerFive women, all near the wrong side of forty, face life's ups and downs together with laughter, tears, and sometimes irony. Their only imperative: live, love and live some more.
- DirectorJoaquim LeitãoStarsJoaquim de AlmeidaCristina CâmaraDiogo InfanteFather Antonio is a priest by vocation, committed and generous, dear people of Vila Daires a quiet village of the north. But Father Anthony is also a man, and Vila Daires is not as peaceful as it seems. The good intentions of the Father will not be sufficient to halt the worsening of the conflict. And when your fate intersects with Lena, the "black sheep" of the village, Father will also be forced to confront his own demons. Especially with those who never even thought that could exist.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsLuís Miguel CintraJosé PintoIsabel RuthThey are famous, weighed down by honour, celebrated, highly esteemed - aged and ancient. The father, in an attempt to save his son from becoming decrepit tries to drive his son to suicide. He has his work cut out for him. When the curtain falls on this tragic comedy, we have been moved in time to Porto in the thirties. Suzy, a kept woman, who is probably going to die on the operating table, sums up her philosophy on life: "This is but a detail." To comfort the dandy who has just had a very intense affair with this women, a friend tells him the tale of Fisalina. A country girl who discovers that her fingertips are made of gold. She becomes the mother of a river for a thousand years.
- DirectorTeresa VillaverdeStarsAna MoreiraAlexandre PintoNelson VarelaThree homeless teenagers rejects struggle to survive together. Of them, Andreia is pregnant, while Pedro and Ricardo hustle, steal and are exploited by a pornographer.
- DirectorJoão César MonteiroStarsRita DurãoJoão César MonteiroJoana AzevedoAfter receiving a visit from a messenger of God, João de Deus wins his buddy's girlfriend through a roll of the dice.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsChiara MastroianniPedro AbrunhosaAntoine ChappeyA well-bred, lovely, spiritual, sad young woman marries an attentive physician who loves her. She feels affection but no love. Soon after, without design, she falls in love with Pedro Abrunhosa, a poet and performance artist. He also loves her. She keeps her distance from him, confessing her love to a friend who is a nun and, later, to her husband. Hunger for her love and jealousy consume him; she attends him as he wastes away. With his death, she can marry and express her passion, but what she does and how she explains herself, particularly to her cloistered friend, is at the heart of the film. Glimpses of convent life and of Abrunhosa on stage give contrast and mute comment.
- DirectorAntónio-Pedro VasconcelosStarsSaúl FonsecaFernanda SerranoJoaquim LeitãoA woman takes her young son, leaves her husband and moves in with her lover. The boy, desperate to get his parents back together, becomes convinced that if only he can get his father's stolen motorcycle back everything will be fine again, so he sets out to get enough money to buy his father a new one.
- DirectorAlberto Seixas SantosStarsPauline CadellRui MorissonAlexandre PintoThis film about contemporary life in Lisbon concerns an Irish woman, Cathy, who dearly loves her Portugese lawyer husband Pedro. Though, unbeknownst to her, he engages in one tryst after another. Cathy soon finds herself trying to help a young delinquent get off heroin, while the youth's desperate mother joins a weird religious cult. In other segments, an elderly man is nearly driven mad with grief at the loss of his granddaughter in a train station, while a down-and-out jeweller ushers the young girl to a hotel room.
- DirectorMaria de MedeirosStarsStefano AccorsiMaria de MedeirosJoaquim de AlmeidaStory of the 1974 coup that overthrew the right-wing Portuguese dictatorship--which continued the fascist policies of long-time dictator Antonio Salazar--and of two young army captains who were involved in it.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsLima DuarteLuís Miguel CintraRicardo TrêpaThe story of Father Antonio Vieira, a 17th-century Portuguese priest who lived in Brazil and worked for better treatment of the Indians and to abolish slavery.
- DirectorFernando LopesStarsRogério SamoraAlexandra LencastreRui MorissonBased on José Cardoso Pires' novel, O Delfim shows a rotten country, full of feudal lords who dominate its territory with dictatorship. One of them is Tomás da Palma Bravo, also known as O Delfim.
- DirectorJoão BotelhoStarsPatrícia GuerreiroSuzana BorgesRui MorissonA historical classic drama in three acts, retold after an original prologue about dreams and nightmares of the thirteen-year-old noble heroine, Maria de Noronha.
- DirectorJoão Mário GriloStarsAlexandra LencastreTeresa RobyRogério SamoraTwenty-five years after leaving school, a group of former students decide to organise a reunion. But, contrary to expectations, these "old boys" realise that time has accentuated their differences. The atmosphere is tense, the conversation taut and the old grudges resurface in no time.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsLeonor BaldaqueLeonor SilveiraIsabel RuthHaving lost her place among the social elite, a widow remarries and starts a family.
- DirectorLeonel VieiraStarsDiogo MorgadoKarra ElejaldeMaitê ProençaYoung man, of Portuguese nobility ascendancy, starts working in a rubber plantation in the Amazon, in 1912, and falls in love with pretty Yayá, a married woman.
- DirectorAntónio-Pedro VasconcelosStarsJoaquim de AlmeidaEmmanuelle SeignerNicolau BreynerEvery year, four ex-soldiers who call themselves "Os Imortais" ("The Immortals"), get together with four women to celebrate their war deeds and remember the old days, back in the war. On the summer of 1985, tired of their monotonous lives, they decide to rob a bank. Joaquim Malarranha, a chief inspector from the local police force who is about to retire, crosses their path and chooses to spend his last days of duty trying to solve the robbery. But as he carries on with his investigation, he discovers more than he could have ever imagined...
- DirectorLuís Filipe RochaStarsLeonor SeixasJoão RicardoJoão Pedro VazMariana is a 17 year old girl, who, after being raped by drug addict, finds out she's pregnant and, in her path, discovers how difficult it can be entering adulthood.
- DirectorJoão César MonteiroStarsJoão César MonteiroRita Pereira MarquesJoaquina ChicauJoão Vuvu, lives alone in a house that requires regeneration but due to being alone he is unable to do the work. On his son's release from prison and João's ensuing deception triggers a series of somber events.