17/04/2023 - The Portuguese festival has announced the 314 titles that will take part in this year’s programme, set to unspool from 27 April-7 May

IndieLisboa has unveiled the identities of all of the titles partaking in its 20th edition. This year’s iteration will be a celebratory one that unspools between 27 April and 7 May, with a total of 314 films selected – a record number for the festival.

One of the highlights is the Portuguese Film Competition, which this year mixes features, medium-length and short films, making a total of 25 titles. Susana Nobre, the winner of the IndieLisboa Best Portuguese Feature Film Award in 2021 with Jack’s Ride [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Susana Nobre
film profile], returns to the gathering with her latest feature, Cidade Rabat [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which premiered earlier this year in the Berlinale Forum. Also coming back to the festival is Catarina Mourão, this time with the national premiere of Astrakan 79. Part of this selection will be the diptych of features Bad Living [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: João Canijo
film profile] and Living Bad [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: João Canijo
film profile], directed by João Canijo, which will have their national premieres at the festival before moving on to screen in national theatres on 11 May. Catarina Pessoa’s documentary Rosinha and Other Wild Animals will have its world premiere in Lisbon, and the gathering will also present the debut features by Alexander David, First Age, and Telmo Churro, India. In addition to these features, the section includes three medium-length films and 16 shorts.

India will also be screened at the festival in the context of the first edition of SMART7, which arrives in Lisbon as part of the collaborative, itinerant and competitive programme comprising seven films selected by the seven festivals that make up this cooperative network (see the news).

As for national talents, the festival has announced the 18-film line-up of the competitive section for young directors, Brand New, which this year will boast an international jury and a new MUTIM (Women Working in Movie Images) Award.

Previously announced were the opening and closing films, Something You Said Last Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Luis De Filippis
film profile] by Luis De Filippis and The Adults by Dustin Guy Defa, as well as the hopefuls in some of the competitive sections (International Competition, Silvestre and IndieMusic) and some of the non-competitive ones (Director’s Cut, Jan Svankmajer Retrospective, Mouth of Madness and Special Screenings). Additional announcements were made recently for some of these sections. Paul B Preciado’s Orlando, My Political Biography [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paul B Preciado
film profile] is one of the highlights, and is now on the Special Screenings programme. IndieMusic’s latest entry is Little Richard: I Am Everything by Lisa Cortes. Furthermore, in this section dedicated to music and cinema, there will be a non-competitive showcase of films under the banner “50 Years of Hip-hop”, curated by Portuguese artist Sam the Kid.

In terms of industry events, the festival will once again host the LisbonTalks, the Portuguese Film Fund programme and the Lisbon Screenings programme, adding a new project-development workshop to the mix, which will take place between 28 and 30 April: IndieLab.

Last but not least, the event has added two different locations to its usual list of venues (which are traditionally the São Jorge Cinema, the Cinemateca Portuguesa, Culturgest and Cinema Ideal). One is the Fernando Lopes Cinema and the other the Penha de França swimming pool, where the festival will hold its first Cinema at the Pool screenings, scheduled for 7 May, the last day of the festivities.