25/07/2014 - Thirteen Portuguese short films will be shown in competition

Lisbon’s International Horror Film Festival, MotelX, will hold its eighth edition from 10-14 September, expanding its programme from two to three venues in the Portuguese capital.

Some of the highlights of this year’s edition were unveilled earlier this week. The festival will kick off before its official opening (on 10 September) with a sort of warm-up week, which includes poetry sessions and open-air film events, followed by five days of screenings taking place in parallel with masterclasses and worshops.

MotelX’s main section, “Room Service”, is not competitive. Among the European titles programmed this year are Fabrice du Welz’s Alleluia [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Fabrice Du Welz
film profile] (Belgium), Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s Among the Living [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (France), Nacho Vigalondo’s Open Windows [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nacho Vigalondo
film profile] (Spain) and Adrian García Bogliano’s Late Phases (Spain).

The only competitive section of the festival is the one screening local horror short films. This year, a total of 13 titles will be judged by jury members Gonçalo Waddington (actor), Luísa Sequeira (Shortcuts Porto director) and Julien Maury (French director). Shorts in competition are: Bodas de Papel by Francisco Antunez; Contactos 2.0 by Bernardo Gomes de Almeida and Rodrigues Duvens Pinto; Demência by Rafael Almeida; Dentes e Garras by Francisco Lacerda; Epoh by Pedro Pinto; Forbidden Room by Emanuel Nevado and Ricardo Almeida; Gata Má by Eva Mendes, Joana de Rosa and Sara Augusto; Maria by Joana Viegas; A Morte é o Único Perdão by Rui Pilão; Offline by Pedro Rodrigues; Pela Boca Morre o Peixe by João P Nunes; Schadenfreude – De Morrer a Rir by Leonardo Dias and Se o Dia Chegar by Pedro Santasmarinas.

Another section dedicated to Portuguese genre films will screen two classic titles: Fernando Garcia’s O Cerro dos Enforcados and Manoel de Oliveira’s Os Canibais.