Three distinct visions and one city as a starting point: Elena L. Riera, Pedro Neves, and Vlad Petri are the filmmakers selected for Working Class Heroes 2025. This program, developed in partnership with Filmaporto – film commission and #CaixaForumPlus of the “la Caixa” Foundation, supports cinematic creation about Porto with a €75,000 grant. More than simply enabling new films, it brings filmmakers closer to the local community, listening to and revealing the diversity of stories that define the city’s present and memory.
In each edition, projects by three filmmakers are presented to an international jury; one is selected to be developed and produced over the course of two years, premiering worldwide at Porto/Post/Doc.
Elena López Riera is a Spanish filmmaker and visual artist whose poetic cinema bridges reality and myth. A co-founder of the collective lacasinegra and professor at the University of Geneva, her films — Pueblo, Las vísceras, and Los que desean — have premiered at Cannes, Locarno, and Toronto. Los que desean won the Golden Pardino at Locarno and was nominated for the European Film Awards. Retrospectives of her work have been held in Paris, Bogotá, and Gijón.
Pedro Neves is a documentary filmmaker and producer based in Porto. Founder of Red Desert Films, his work explores memory, revolution, and social transformation. His documentaries — including The Desert Fox, Tarrafaland Dreams of a Revolution — have won multiple awards and screened at festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand, Doclisboa, and CPH:DOX. He is also general secretary of APNEIA, supporting independent audiovisual production in northern Portugal.
Vlad Petri is a filmmaker whose work explores political and social realities through a deeply personal lens. Blending archival and intimate footage, his films often blur the boundaries between documentary and fiction. His debut Where are you Bucharest? premiered at Rotterdam, and his feature Between Revolutions won the FIPRESCI Award at Berlinale and screened at over 100 festivals worldwide.
This activity is also supported by Turismo de Portugal
