The Cinema Novo Competition brings together short films by young filmmakers and film students, reflecting the vitality of film schools. A programme that champions new voices, perspectives, and forms, with the support of Canal180.
And Still, We Dreamt of Paradise!
David Falcão, Alexandra Petrovskaya, DOC, 2024, PRT, 14'
Cinema emerges as a dance without music, where performers create the spectacle while confronting bureaucracy and questioning the gaze that shapes both art and perception.
Closer to Animal
Afonso Gil Mendes Branco, DOC, 2025, PRT, 21'
A young dancer from northern Portugal navigates adulthood and the anxieties of her generation, discovering in dance her only refuge from the chaos of Lisbon city life.
In Nature's Spite
João Pedro Amorim, ESSAY, EXP, 2025, PRT, 26'
An interspecies tragicomedy on nature’s resistance to human domination, blending a filmmaker’s dream of floral revenge with cycles of rebirth.
Perpetual Disorder
João Carlos Pinto, EXP, 2024, PRT, ESP, 5'
An immersive sensory journey through the bustling streets of Barcelona’s old town, where time, space, and human presence intertwine in unexpected ways.
Echoes of the Youth: Vilnius
Marta Moita, Erica Haukka, DOC, 2024, FIN, LTU, 6'
Vilnius, Lithuania, is explored through the eyes of four young locals. Each with a different background, they all hold a common perspective on this multicultural city.
I Hope There Is No Rain Tomorrow
António Villar, DOC, 2024, PRT, 15'
Street posters are visible in every corner of the city, but who are the invisible people who put them up? A documentary story, told by the filmmaker, himself a member of a collective responsible for the poster paste-ups in Lisbon.
Water Tongue
Stella Horta , EXP, DOC, 2025, PRT, DEU, 19'
Whale songs, seabird calls, letters and signals weave a journey between Mariana and Stella, whose travels in the Azores create a polyphonic film where human and animal voices meet as equals.
Lights, Haze
Tata Managadze, ANI, 2025, GEO, BEL, FIN, PRT, 8'
Utopian symbolic playgrounds from memories are interconnected through sharp, flickering lights
In Flanders Fields
Sachin, DOC, 2024, PRT, BEL, IND, PRT, 16'
Using war sounds and archives, Sachin evokes 1.4 million Indian soldiers in Flanders Fields, weaving a haunting ancestral memory.
In a Breath
Catarina Couto Gonçalves, DOC, 2025, PRT, 15'
“In a Breath” captures a moment suspended on ice, following figure skater Nina Pinzarrone’s fragile yet unyielding pursuit of perfection.
Signs of Life
Julia Kushnarenko, DOC, 2024, BEL, HUN, PRT, 10'
A story about immortality through the eyes of a dog.
