Ivo M. Ferreira, Marta Popivoda and Nuno Boaventura Miranda are the invited filmmakers for Working Class Heroes 2026, the Porto/Post/Doc programme dedicated to developing new film projects about the city of Porto.
Developed in partnership with Filmaporto – film commission and with the support of Fundación “la Caixa”, through the CaixaForum+ platform, the programme awards a €75,000 grant for the development and production of a new film about the city of Porto. In each edition, projects by three filmmakers are presented to an international jury, which selects one of them to be developed and produced over a two-year period, with its world premiere at Porto/Post/Doc.
The programme brings filmmakers closer to local communities, creating conditions to listen, research and uncover the stories, memories and experiences that shape contemporary Porto.
Ivo M. Ferreira has built a body of work driven by a desire to revisit lesser-explored areas of contemporary Portuguese history, where intimate memory, political violence and colonial legacy intersect. With a background in theatre, Ferreira directed “Cartas da Guerra”, presented in Official Competition at the Berlinale, and “Hotel Império”, filmed in Macau. More recently, “Projecto Global” was presented, while the feature film “Os Mágicos do Império” is currently in development.
Marta Popivoda, a filmmaker, artist and researcher working between Berlin and Belgrade, explores the tensions between memory, history and ideology, as well as the relationships between collective and individual bodies. Working from feminist and queer perspectives, Popivoda’s practice spans cinema and visual arts, and has been presented at festivals and institutions including the Berlinale, Locarno, IFFR, NYFF, IDFA, Visions du Réel, MoMA, Tate Modern and MAXXI. Popivoda teaches film at the University of the Arts in Amsterdam and is a member of the European Film Academy.
Nuno Boaventura Miranda is a Cape Verdean filmmaker who, since 2015, has developed a sensory language centred on human narratives through the production company he founded with Pedro Soulé. The documentary “Kmêdeus” and the short film “A Última Colheita”, presented at IFFR in 2025, brought international attention to his work. Centred on urban gardens and the Cape Verdean community in Lisbon, the latter received awards at Porto/Post/Doc, BlackStar Film Festival and the European Short Awards. After taking part in programmes including La Fabrique, Atlas Workshops and EAVE, Miranda is currently developing his first feature film, “As Flores dos Mortos”, while continuing to focus on invisible stories that shape the identity of places.
Bringing together three distinct perspectives and relationships to memory, territory and community, Working Class Heroes places Porto at the centre of the filmmaking process, supporting projects that take the city as a starting point for imagining and representing it in new ways.
