29/11/2016 - The festival focuses on local productions, looking back on some of the most important titles of the year as well as presenting new ones

The animated film It Would Piss Me off to Die so Yoooooung by Filipe Abranches has won the Grand Prize at the 22^nd Paths of Portuguese Cinema festival, an edition at which Ivo M Ferreira’s feature Letters from War [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Ivo M Ferreira
film profile] was the most-awarded title.

According to a statement by the jury, the 16-minute animated film produced by the Animais studio was victorious thanks to the “pertinence of its theme and the peculiar style of its author”. The film follows a Portuguese soldier who is sent to a battle in Flanders, where he has to face the horrors of the Great War before being rescued by a French family.

Another conflict-themed title, Letters from War, which explores the correspondence that Portuguese author Lobo Antunes sent to his wife during the colonial conflict, became the most-awarded film of the gathering. Most notably, it scooped the Award for Best Feature Film, for “its poetic, literary and human recreation of the Portuguese colonial past”, besides the Best Adapted Script (Ferreira and Edgar Medina), Sound, Editing and Photography Awards. Letters from War had been one of the most highly anticipated local productions of the year since it had its premiere in competition at the most recent Berlinale. It finally reached Portuguese screens last September, to become the third most-seen local title of the year (racking up 21,568 admissions, according to data from the ICA).

Correspondences [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the depiction of the epistolary bond between poets Jorge de Sena and Sophia de Melo Andersen, earned Rita Azevedo Gomes the Award for Best Director, while the short film Batrachian Ballad by emerging director Leonor Teles picked up the Revelation Prize. Both titles enjoyed high-profile international premieres: Correspondences was part of the Locarno competition, and Batrachian’s Ballad snagged the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlinale.

Paulo Filipe Monteiro’s Zeus received four prizes: Best Actor (for Sinde Filipe), Supporting Actor (Miguel Cunha), Make-up and Costumes. The film is based on the life of Portuguese president Manuel Teixeira Gomes, who voluntarily went into exile in Algeria, leaving Lisbon aboard a Dutch ship named Zeus. The date for Zeus’ local theatrical distribution is yet to be announced.

Also worth mentioning was the Award for Best Documentary, which went to the Portuguese-Luxembourgian co-production Eldorado [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Rui Eduardo Abreu, Thierry Besseling and Loïc Tanson. The film, which was co-financed by the Film Fund Luxembourg, focuses on the hopes and disillusionment of four Portuguese immigrants in the Grand Duchy.

A sort of overview of the best Portuguese features and short productions of the year, rather than focusing on new titles, the Paths of Portuguese Cinema festival took place in the cities of Coimbra and Leiria, and came to an end last weekend. Both cities are located in the central part of the country. The festival thus plays an important role in decentralising the exhibition of Portuguese films, particularly auteur-driven titles whose distribution tends to be confined to theatres in the main cities of Lisbon and Porto – and to small “cineclubs” in provincial towns.

Here is the complete list of award winners:

Grand Prize
It Would Piss Me off to Die so Yoooooung - Filipe Abranches

Best Director
Rita Azevedo Gomes – Correspondences [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]

Best Feature Film
Letters from War [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Ivo M Ferreira
film profile] - Ivo M Ferreira

Best Animation Film
Estilhaços - José Miguel Ribeiro

Best Documentary
Eldorado [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Rui Eduardo Abreu, Thierry Besseling, Loïc Tanson

Best Short Film
Campo de Víboras – Cristele Alves Meira

Best Actor
Sinde Filipe - Zeus

Best Actress
Ana Padrão – Campo de Víboras

Best Supporting Actor
Miguel Cunha - Zeus

Best Supporting Actress
Elisabete Piecho – O Pecado de Quem nos Ama

Best Original Script
João Nicolau, Mariana Ricardo – John From [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]

Best Adapted Script
Ivo M Ferreira, Edgar Medina – Letters from War

Best Sound
Tiago Matos, Tiago Leal – Letters from War

Best Editing
Sandro Aguillar – Letters from War

Best Photography
João Ribeiro – Letters from War

Best Art Director
Artur Pinheiro – Refrigerantes e Canções de Amor [+see also:
trailer
interview: Victória Guerra
film profile]

Best Make-up
Sara Menitra – Zeus

Best Costumes
Sílvia Grabowski – Zeus

Best Soundtrack
Filipe Raposo - Refrigerantes e Canções de Amor

Revelation Prize
Batrachian Ballad - Leonor Teles

Audience Award
Refrigerantes e Canções de Amor - Luís Galvão Teles