09/04/2025 - Boasting a record number of features selected for the National Competition, the 22nd edition will be bookended by Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language and Jia Zhangke’s Caught by the Tides

IndieLisboa has announced the programme for its 22nd edition, which will take place from 1-11 May: 238 films will be screened at the festival over the course of 11 days. The festivities will be kicked off by Matthew Rankin’s second feature, Universal Language, as the opening film. For its closing ceremony, the festival will play host to Caught by the Tides, Jia Zhangke’s latest movie. The venues for the gathering will be the Cinema São Jorge, Culturgest, Cinema Ideal, Cinemateca Portuguesa, Cinema Fernando Lopes and Penha de França Pool (with the latter boasting a Cinema at the Pool programme).

Ten features make up the International Competition selection, which includes two world premieres: Brought With the Storm by Miguel de Zuviría and Downriver, a Tiger by Víctor Diago. Also part of this section are She Boars by Elsa Brès, which will have its international premiere at the festival, and Alexandra Simpson’s debut feature, No Sleep Till [+see also:
film review
interview: Alexandra Simpson
film profile], enjoying a national premiere, amongst other titles.

The festival’s National Competition also boasts the same number of features (ten), with a total of 26 selected films, including shorts. This marks the gathering’s biggest ever feature-film selection for this competition. With a mix of newcomers and established filmmakers, there will be four feature-length world premieres: Madalena Fragoso’s As Flores; Santa Iria, directed by Luís Miguel Correia; João Rosas’ first fiction feature, A Luminous Life; and We Are Two Abysses, a film by Kapal Joshy, a director based in Portugal. As for the national debuts, they are Ico Costa’s recently released Balane 3; Two Times João Liberada [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Tomás Paula Marques; Our Father - The Last Days of a Dictator [+see also:
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interview: José Filipe Costa
film profile], José Filipe Costa’s first fiction feature; Sandro Aguilar’s First Person Plural [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Sandro Aguilar
film profile]; Gods of Stone by Iván Castiñeiras Gallego; and Denise Fernandes’ Hanami [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Denise Fernandes
film profile], a film that is also part of the Smart 7 Network programme (see the news).

Also enjoying world premieres at the festival, as part of the non-competitive Rhizome section, we have the Portuguese film Memoirs of Teatro da Cornucópia, directed by Solveig Nordlund, and the Cape Verdean-Portuguese-Mozambican co-production We, People of the Islands, directed by Elson Santos and Lara Sousa. Similarly part of the Rhizome section, and following in the footsteps of other Portuguese productions, is Where Do You Call Home by Ana Pérez Quiroga, which will be having its national premiere. In total, there are 16 features and one short film in this non-competitive strand, which has a selection spanning from the winner of the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale, The Blue Trail [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Gabriel Mascaro, to the Special Jury Prize winner at Venice, April [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Dea Kulumbegashvili
film profile] by Dea Kulumbegashvili.

Among the competitive sections, Silvestre showcases both features and shorts. Part of this sidebar comprises Lois Patiño’s Iberian production Ariel [+see also:
film review
interview: Lois Patiño
film profile], James Benning’s Little Boy, Reflection in a Dead Diamond [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani
film profile] by Bruno Forzani and Hélène Cattet, as well as productions from Japan, the Philippines, Argentina and other countries, with a seven-feature selection in competition, besides 20 short films.

Previously, the festival announced a retrospective on pioneering Bulgarian filmmaker Binka Zhelyazkova as well as a focus on British multimedia artist, filmmaker and essayist Charlie Shackleton, amongst other non-competitive sections, and has thus now finalised the programme for its 22nd edition.