Portuguese Film Fund 2021

The Portuguese Film Fund, created in 2011, is an initiative of IndieLisboa – Cultural Association and aims to be a complimentary instrument for post-production support of Portuguese films.

The teams of the selected projects will pitch them before an international jury that will help define the winners of the prizes at stake, namely: financial support of €1.500 (Escola das Artes, Universidade Católica Portuguesa – Porto), sound post-production services (Digital Mix Música e Imagem), €6.000 for creation of original soundtrack (Fundação GDA), and image post-production services (The Yellow Color).

SELECTED PROJECTS

  • Rosa’s House by Rosa Coutinho Cabral (feature film, documentary, production: Nocturno, Portugal);
  • Sixteen by Carlos Lobo (short film, fiction, production: Olhar de Ulisses; Cimbalino Filmes, Portugal);
  • Between Light and Nowhere by Joana de Sousa (short film, fiction, production: Primeira Idade, Portugal);
  • Kinté Bô by Sofia Borges (short film, fiction, production: Oxalá filmes, Portugal / São Tomé e Príncipe);
  • The Bath by Maria Inês Gonçalves (short film, experimental / fiction, production: Maria Inês Gonçalves, Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Portugal / Spain);
  • On the Shoreline by Samuel Mountford (short film, documentary / experimental, production: Samuel Mountford; co-production: Anže Peršin, Portugal / Australia);
  • Via Norte by Paulo Carneiro (feature film, experimental / fiction / documentary, production: Vento Forte; co-production: Head-Geneva, Switzerland / Portugal);
  • Saturn by André Guiomar and Luís Costa (short film, fiction, production: Olhar de Ulisses; co-production: Cimbalino Filmes, Portugal);
  • Ultimate Bliss by Miguel de Jesus (short film, documentary / experimental, production: C.R.I.M., Australia, Qatar, Portugal);
  • Um Jardim Interior by Sérgio Roo (short film, fiction / documentary, production: Escola das Artes, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Portugal).*
*out of competition

The jury of the Portuguese Film Fund will be composed of musician Salvador Sobral, the Jeonju Film festival programmer Sung Moon, and the artistic director of Vienna Shorts Film Festival, Daniel Ebner.

WINNING PROJECTS

ESCOLA DAS ARTES, UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA PORTUGUESA (PORTO)

Financial support of €1.500, awarded to a project of any length or genre:
• Périphérique Nord, by Paulo Carneiro (Vento Forte, Head-Geneva, Switzerland / Portugal)
A young car aficionado travels 2000km north and meets some of his fellow countrymen, who have been forced to leave their country; together, they share a love for cars.

DMIX – DIGITAL MIX MÚSICA E IMAGEM LDª

Post-production Sound Services for two films (two short films):
• Between Light and Nowhere, by Joana de Sousa (Primeira Idade, Portugal)
For weeks, Shade hasn’t been sleeping well. Unexplainable lights appear in the sky. Shade seems to be floating, in an intermediate state in which the reality of the world around them does not sustain itself.
• Kinté Bô, by Sofia Borges (Oxalá Filmes, Portugal / São Tomé e Príncipe)
The island is inhabited by ghosts that interfere with everyday life. There is a debt from the past that plagues the fishing activity of Bumba and the future of the population.

FUNDAÇÃO GDA

€6.000 for the creation of original music, awarding one feature film (€4.000) and one short-film (€2.000), or, alternatively, three short films (each €2.000):
• Between Light and Nowhere, by Joana de Sousa (Primeira Idade, Portugal)
For weeks, Shade hasn’t been sleeping well. Unexplainable lights appear in the sky. Shade seems to be floating, in an intermediate state in which the reality of the world around them does not sustain itself.
• Saturn, by André Guiomar e Luís Costa (Olhar de Ulisses, Cimbalino Filmes, Portugal)
Saturn tells the story of Caveirinha, a humble fisherman who lives in a difficult social housing. Immediately after the death of his son at the sea, he faces the difficulty of burying him with dignity..
• The Bath, by Maria Inês Gonçalves (Maria Inês Gonçalves, Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Portugal/Spain)
The baby plays with the boat in the bathtub. Suddenly, the boat turns around. Suddenly, the boat isn’t the boat in the bathtub anymore, but the boat in the sea. Suddenly the baby isn’t the baby anymore but it’s me.

THE YELLOW COLOR

Two studio days of color grading for a short film.:
• Ultimate Bliss, by Miguel de Jesus (C.R.I.M, Austrália, Qatar, Portugal)
A film-diary and an exercise of memory, about a future that is as remote as it is wild.

Eligibility conditions

Submitted projects may be short or feature films, regardless of their genre (fiction, documentary, animation or experimental) in early stages of post-production  (rough or almost final cut), at the time of application. They should be authored by Portuguese directors, or by foreigners with permanent residence in Portugal, and have Portuguese production. The projects may have obtained other support (namely ICA, GDA Foundation or others), with a 50% quota guaranteed for low budget projects. For further information, please refer to the Regulations or contact Carlota Gonçalves – fundo@indielisboa.com.

Partners

IndieLisboa is joined by partners Escola das Artes – Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Fundação GDA, Digital Mix Música e Imagem, The Yellow Color, and Portugal Film – Portuguese Film Agency. Partners will contribute with services or direct funding, and Portugal Filmwill participate to show international programmers and distributors the work-in-progress projects in the context of Lisboa Screenings, private sessions of unreleased Portuguese films, organised especially for these international guests. 

Awards

a) Escola das Artes – Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Porto): financial support of €1,500 given to a project of any length and genre. 

b) Digital Mix Música e Imagem: sound post-production services for a short film and mixing for a feature film;

c) GDA Foundation: €6.000 for the creation of original music, awarding a feature film (€4.000) and a short film (€2.000), or alternatively three short films (each €2.000);

d) The Yellow Color: two studio days for image  post-production, with the technician(s) paid separately. 

Partners – About

School of Arts, Catholic University of Portugal (Porto)
The School of Arts (SA) of the Catholic University of Portugal, based in Porto, offers a range of university training, including undergraduate, master’s and doctorate degrees, in the field of artistic education, with particular emphasis in cinema. SA privileges the creation of an artistic identity through the combination of the teaching of critical thinking with artistic and technical development, thus promoting the emergence of future filmmakers, artists, curators and professionals who can think and create in the contemporary world. In parallel SA offers an intense cultural program of exhibitions, artist residencies, film screenings, performances and open classes aimed at the community.

Digital Mix Music and Image
DMix, Digital Mix Música e Imagem, Lda. is a sound and image production company, located in Lisbon, with 2 sound studios, one stereo and the other 5.1 surround, prepared for sound production and post-production in the areas of advertising, music, television, cinema and in all aspects to which sound refers. Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, it is able to respond to market needs, sound quality and speed, positioning itself as a technological and creative partner, dedicated to finding the best solutions for our clients’ requests.

GDA Foundation
The GDA Foundation aim is to support artists and their professional activities on multiple levels. This mission is carried out using a portion of the intellectual property rights generated by the artists themselves, ensured by GDA, the organisation responsible for the collective management of the Artists’ Rights, and benefits the entire artistic community through programmes to promote the arts and culture, the social protection of artists, the promotion of training activities, the creation of job opportunities, and the dissemination and protection of their intellectual property rights.

The Yellow Color
The Yellow Color is a post-production studio specializing in colour correction for film and advertising. This is the new project of colorist Marco Amaral who in recent years has collaborated closely with the best Portuguese directors in over 100 films screened at major film festivals around the world. Working closely with visual effects artists and sound editors/mixers, he is able to provide complete post-production solutions for projects of all scales.

Portugal Film – Portuguese Film Agency
Portugal Film – Portuguese Film Agency was launched in 2015 and is responsible for the international distribution and sales of feature and short films in Portugal. The internationalisation plan for each of the films in the catalogue (fiction, documentaries, animations and experimental titles) is due to the agency’s strong capacity to place them in the main film festivals in the world. Committed to the internationalisation of Portuguese cinema, Portugal Film promotes throughout the year several actions (presence in markets and festivals and screenings for the industry) aiming to bring the films to distributors, festivals and local exhibition networks that will show them to an international audience.

Image: “With Flowers”, by Helena Estrela.