Dedicated exclusively to Portuguese-speaking cinema, this competitive section of Porto/Post/Doc 2025 presents a selection of recent short and feature films that promote and showcase the Portuguese language in all its diversity, as well as the cinematographies of various Lusophone countries. Through singular perspectives and distinct formal approaches, the films explore identities, collective memories, and contemporary experiences that transcend cultural and geographical boundaries.
The Last Harvest, by Nuno Boaventura Miranda [TRAILER]
Teenager Gabriel fears forgetting his late father’s face; Isabel, a single mother, struggles to provide for her son; Firmino loses his garden, which he considered a portal to Cape Verde. Their lives intertwine, creating an intergenerational portrait of a Cape Verdean community in Lisbon, marked by questions of belonging and desire for connection. Premiered in Rotterdam.
Cape Verdean filmmaker Nuno Boaventura Miranda studied Animation Design in China before establishing himself as a self-taught filmmaker. He co-founded Kriolscope Filmes and collaborated with Pedro Costa on Vitalina Varela. He made his directorial debut with Kmêdeus (IFFR 2020).
Light in Darkness, Mariana Santana
É Outono. Uma rapariga e um homem mais velho viajam de comboio até ao Douro, à procura de um fenómeno de luz. Esperam durante o dia, mas é no silêncio da noite que tudo acontece. O vento acompanha-os. Numa noite de tempestade, ela confronta-o com a sua própria existência. O invisível torna-se visível, mas ainda é possível acreditar?
Cartography of the Waves, by Heloisa Machado Nascimento [TRAILER]
A filmmaker couple creates a film about Teresa, a pregnant woman arriving on a fantastic island where deceased sex workers find refuge. The narrative transforms when Heloisa discovers she is also pregnant, intertwining fiction, essay, and personal experience in a portrait of motherhood, death, and creation.
Heloisa Machado, a Brazilian filmmaker and cinematographer from Brasília, graduated in Cinema and Audiovisual Studies at UFF. A member of the DAFB collective, she has shot award-winning films at festivals such as Brasília. Cartography of the Waves is her first feature as director.
Gods of Stone, by Iván Castiñeiras [TRAILER]
Filmed over fifteen years, this poetic portrait follows a rural community on the ancestral border between Galicia and Portugal. Through tales, legends, and childhood stories, it follows Mariana, who at seventeen must decide whether to leave her village and mother to study abroad.
Born in Santiago de Compostela, Iván Castiñeiras studied Art History and Cinema in Lisbon, with further training in Paris and Barcelona. He participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus and was an artist-in-residence at the Casa de Velázquez. Gods of Stone is his first feature.
Infinite Infinite, In the Imagination of Matter, by Mariana Caló and Francisco Queimadela
Shot in Porto, the film follows children and Fine Arts students engaging in artistic exploratory practices. At the intersection of childhood, education, experimentation, and collective creation, it offers a reflection on space, imagination, and community.
Artists and filmmakers Mariana Caló and Francisco Queimadela have collaborated since 2010. Their work focuses on moving images, crossing cinema, visual arts, and installation, and has been shown internationally in both film and visual arts contexts.
Ku Handza, by André Guiomar
In Maputo, citizens living below the poverty line reinvent creative ways of survival daily, adapting to social demands and transforming adversity into resilience.
Born in 1988 in Porto, André Guiomar holds a BA in Sound and Image and a Master’s in Cinema and Audiovisual. He directed shorts such as Piton and the feature A Nossa Terra, O Nosso Altar, and worked as cinematographer on Gonçalo Tocha’s A Mãe e o Mar. Ku Handza continues his documentary work focused on social themes.
Maria Henriqueta Was Here, by Nuno Pimentel
In 1872, the Emperor of Brazil, Pedro II, visits Porto and stays at the Grand Hotel du Louvre, owned by Maria Henriqueta de Mello Lemos e Alvelos. In the present day, the attempt to recreate this episode becomes a phantasmagorical invocation of memories and sensations.
Nuno Ochôa Pimentel (b. 1992) studied cinema at ESAP and screenwriting in London. He participated in the Locarno Film Festival Industry Academy and residencies promoted by the Gulbenkian Foundation and Escola das Artes. Maria Henriqueta Was Here is his latest short film.
Infinite Samba, by Leonardo Martinelli [TRAILER]
During Rio Carnival, a street cleaner copes with the loss of his sister and the demands of work. When he finds a lost child, he embarks on a journey of care and affection amid the festivities.
Rio-based Leonardo Martinelli won the Golden Leopard at Locarno for Fantasma Neon. His shorts have screened at Cannes, Toronto, San Sebastián, BFI London, and more. He is currently developing his first feature.
A Scary Movie, by Sergio Oksman [TRAILER]
A documentary filmmaker and his 12-year-old son spend summer vacations in an abandoned hotel in Lisbon. Amid echoes of The Shining, real ghosts emerge: crimes and legends from Portuguese history.
Madrid-based filmmaker of Brazilian origin, Sergio Oksman heads Dok Films and teaches at ECAM. His works, including O Futebol (Locarno 2015) and A Story for the Modlins (2012), are marked by formal experimentation and hybrid documentary narratives.
Zizi (or Prayer of the Fabulous Jackfruit), by Felipe M. Bragança [TRAILER]
Based on childhood memories in a Rio de Janeiro suburb, the film tells the story of Dona Zizi, a woman of Indigenous and Black descent who becomes the leader of a territory marked by affections, ghosts, and colonial wounds.
Born in 1980 in Rio, Felipe M. Bragança studied cinema at UFF and started his career as assistant to Karim Aïnouz. He has directed four features shown at Cannes, Berlinale, and Sundance. Co-founder of the independent production company Duas Mariola Filmes, he has had retrospectives in Paris, Los Angeles, and Berlin.
Sechiisland: Life as a Work of Art, by Cláudia do Canto and João Paulo Miranda Maria
This film poetically documents daily life and artistic processes at Sechiisland – República Corporal, a postal art space and independent cultural platform based in Rio Claro, Brazil. The documentary explores how this space, conceived as a “fictional island” with symbols like a flag, currency, and passport, occupies a hybrid place between artwork and community, transforming creation, archiving, and cohabitation into an experimental territory of expression and resistance.
Cláudia do Canto and João Paulo Miranda Maria are visual artists and filmmakers active in experimental arts, hybrid expressions, and collaborative cultural projects at the intersection of cinema and postal art.
