Portugal is Oberhausen's Country Focus for 2020 [11/05/2020]


The 66th edition of the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, in Germany, will take place from the 13th to 18th of May in an online version. One of the oldest and most important short film festivals features in this edition a program of 19 Portuguese films.

The only Portuguese film in competition at the German festival, Six Portraits of Pain by Teresa Villaverde, is an experimental documentary that was born out of António Pinho Vargas' desire to embody six poetic essays by Gilles Deleuze, Espinoza, Thomas Bernhard, Manuel Gusmão, Paul Celan and Anna Akhmátova. The film is produced by Maria João Mayer and this presence in the fi marks its German debut.

Destiny Deluxe, by Diogo Baldaia, a co-production between Areosa and Terratreme Filmes distributed by Portugal Film, will be presented as an international premiere in the new Country Focus section, created with the aim of reflecting on a country's filmography in the last decade. Miguel Valverde was the first curator invited to build a program dedicated to Portuguese cinema: “How to describe the last 10 years in the Portuguese short film scene? Perhaps if we start to recognize that these years were deeply creative in the history of Portuguese cinema. Coincidentally (or not) with the Palme d'Or won by João Salaviza at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, new voices with different approaches began to emerge, in their relationship with cinema and in their ambitions. From that year on, it was possible to show more Portuguese short films than ever before at the best festivals in the world, in different countries, contributing to the diversity of its programs. This group of filmmakers, very different among them, took risks and has surfed the wave, as is the case with Jorge Jácome, Diogo Baldaia and many others. Organized in three programs, we will see a dialogue between young and less young voices, between radical and underground filmmakers, between essays, portraits, science fiction and narrative.”

The first program, Future is Present, consists of films by Rita Figueiredo, Joana Pimenta, Destiny Deluxe by Diogo Baldaia and Past Perfect by Jorge Jácome. The second program, Strange is Fine features André Gil Mata, Ico Costa, Patrick Mendes, Paulo Abreu, Pedro Bastos and Marie Losier's L'Oiseau de la Nuit; and the third program All About Us with André Santos and Marco Leão, Where the Summer Goes (chapters on youth) by David Pinheiro Vicente, Batrachian's Ballad by Leonor Teles, João Rui Guerra da Mata and João Pedro Rodrigues.

May 14th - 8 pm

Future is Present: The Great Attractor by Rita Figueiredo, An Aviation Field by Joana Pimenta, Destiny Deluxe by Diogo Baldaia and Past Perfect by Jorge Jácome.

May 15th - 8 pm

Strange is Fine: House by André Gil Mata, Four Hours Barefoot by Ico Costa, The Estate of the Dead by Patrick Mendes, Barba by Paulo Abreu, To the Wolf of Madragoa by Pedro Bastos and L'Oiseau de la Nuit by Marie Losier.

May 16th - 8 pm

All About Us: Infinito by André Santos and Marco Leão, Where the Summer Goes (chapters on youth) by David Pinheiro Vicente, Batrachian's Ballad by Leonor Teles, As the Flames Rose by João Rui Guerra da Mata, and Où en êtes-vous João Pedro Rodrigues?, by João Pedro Rodrigues.

In this edition, the event also highlights two documentary festivals, Dokufest, which chose Marta Mateus' film, Barbs, Wastelands, which will be shown on May 15th, at 8 pm, and Doclisboa, which programmed Inês Oliveira's film, Vira Chudnenko, showing on the 16th of May, at 8 pm.

More info at https://kurzfilmtage.filmchief.com/event-schedule?event=93


[11/05/2020]