Portugal’s Film and Audiovisual Institute (ICA) has disclosed the recipients of its 2018 grants for “new talents and first features”. The announcement was delayed considerably owing to the implementation of the new cinema legislation, which was approved in April. Filmmakers who have not yet made a fiction feature or who have so far completed no more than one feature-length fiction film were eligible to receive the financial aid. The four members of the committee (João Mário Grilo, Jorge Mourinha, Manuel Costa e Silva and Manuel Halpern) decided that six out of the 62 projects submitted would be supported with a total sum of €2.475 million.

Salomé Lamas (No Man's Land [+lee también:
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The same amount was granted to Susana Nobre’s City of Rabat, which is being produced by Terratreme. Her film Ordinary Time [+lee también:
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Paolo Marinou-Blanco’s (Goodnight Irene [+lee también:
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A further €475,000 went to Diogo Costa Amarante, whose Small Town won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 2017 Berlinale. His fiction project Safe Only is being staged by O Verde do Jardim.

Finally, two projects were supported to the tune of €250,000 each: Ico Costa’s Rosilene (produced by Oublaum Filmes) and João Nuno Pinto’s Zacarias (produced by Leopardo Filmes).