The Working Class Heroes project is an initiative created in 2021 by Porto/Post/Doc, in partnership with Filmaporto – film commission. In 2024, it gained additional interest from the CaixaForum+ platform (Fundación “la Caixa”), with the support of BPI. More than a simple production grant, this program is a platform for creating cinema rooted in the city of Porto — in its people, its spaces, its tensions, and its transformations. With this initiative, the festival aims not only to enable the development and production of new films but also to bring different artistic perspectives closer to the local urban and social context, strengthening the dialogue between creators and the community.

With a €75,000 grant, the project invites national and international filmmakers whose vision resonates with the identity of the festival and with the social realities of the city. The goal? To give voice to the protagonists of everyday life: the workers, the invisible ones, the resilient — the true working class heroes.

Each year, three filmmakers are selected to present their projects before an international jury. One of them is chosen for development and production, in a process that unfolds over two years and culminates in the world premiere of the film at Porto/Post/Doc itself.

Working Class Heroes is an invitation to engage with reality — a challenge to see the city not as a backdrop, but as a living character. A gesture of cultural resistance, forging a connection between cinema and territory, between art and community. By promoting new perspectives and stories about our city, the program affirms cinema as a critical, political, and poetic tool — a way to illuminate forgotten areas, question dominant narratives, and build new images for the city.

In 2025, the three invited filmmakers are:

. ELENA LÓPEZ RIERA (Spain)
. PEDRO NEVES (Portugal)
. VLAD PETRI (Romania)

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This activity also has the support of Turismo de Portugal