SMOLIK, the animation short film by the young director Cristiano Mourato was selected for the Student Competition Panorama of the 20th World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb that will be held in the capital of Croatia between the 1st and the 6th of June. The festival, that is traditionally considered the second oldest festival in Europe, was built on the tradition of the Zagreb School of Animation, Animafest. It is oriented towards auteur film and has made a reputation of being one of the most important events for the animated film.

The 7th IndieLisboa – International Independent Film Festival, to be held between the 22nd of April and the 2nd of May, in Lisbon, will present in the national competition four short films represented by Agência: PICKPOCKET by João Figueiras and VOODOO by Sandro Aguilar in the Observatory section and, within the Emerging Cinema section, the short films SYNCHROTRON by Patrick Mendes and OS OLHOS DO FAROL (The Eyes Of The Lighthouse) by Pedro Serrazina.

The last fiction short film VOODOO by Sandro Aguilar was selected for the international competition at the renowned and prestigious Oberhausen International Short Film Festival (Germany) that celebrates its 56th edition between the 29th of April and the 4th of May. Four competitive programmes and 145 short films selected among more than five thousand submissions and representing forty countries gives one the dimension of a festival that throughout the years built a reference position in the European and world short film panorama. It is in this context that VOODOO is presented in world première, a highlight that the work of the Portuguese director Sandro Aguilar well deserves.

The animated short films A SUSPEITA (The Suspect) and PASSEIO DE DOMINGO (Sunday Drive) by the Portuguese director José Miguel Ribeiro are part of the programming of the Portuguese-Speaking Countries Film Festival being held between the 25th and the 30th of March at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) in Boston (USA). The event is collaboration initiative of the Instituto Camões Center for Portuguese Language, the Boston Portuguese Festival, the Department of Hispanic Studies at UMass Boston, and the Consulates-General of Portugal, Brazil and Cape Verde in Boston. Besides José Miguel’s animation films from four other Portuguese speaking countries will be showcased: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde and Mozambique.

The CAC-Volteire (Centre d’Animation Cinématographique-Voltaire) presents in March at the Maison des Arts du Grütli (salle Langlois), Geneva (Switzerland), a retrospective of the Portuguese director Miguel Gomes including the feature film A CARA QUE MERECES (The Face You Deserve) and the short films ENTRETANTO, INVENTARIO DE NATAL, TRINTA E UM, KALKITOS, PRE-EVOLUTION SOCCER’S ONE MINUTE DANCE AFTER A GOLDEN GOAL IN THE MASTER LEAGUE and CÂNTICO DAS CRIATURAS.

The 7e Festival du Cinema de Brive, European Medium-Length Film Meetings (21-26 April, Brive, France) selected for the European Competition the fiction short film CANÇÃO DE AMOR E SAÚDE (Song of Love and Health) by João Nicolau. A festival that privileges the medium-length format (between 30 and 60 minutes) as a path for “authors to expand their film making palette, to shed a more personal light on their narration, to broaden the depth of their characters and to tackle new subjects”.

The short films MONTANHA FRIA (Cold Mountain) by Luis Alves de Matos, CRIME ABISMO AZUL REMORSO FÍSICO (Crime Blue Abyss Physical Remorse) by Edgar Pêra and EU ADORO ESTE SOM! (I Dig this Sound!) by Filipe Fernandes, Rui Matos and Zulmira Gamito were included in the programming of the 4ª Mostra do Documentário Português – PANORAMA to be held between the 9th and the 18th of April at Cinema São Jorge (Lisbon, Portugal). A documentary non competitive festival that aims to picture the Portuguese film documentary.

CÂNDIDO (Candid) by Zepe (José Pedro Cavalheiro) was awarded with the prize for the Best Portuguese Short at the MONSTRA Lisboa Animated Film Festival. The jury: Filipe Duarte (Portugal), Normand Roger (Canada), Michaela Pavlátová (Czech Republic), Marcos Magalhães (Brazil) and Deb Singleton (U.K.) that chose “Divers in the Rain” by Priit & Olga Pärn (Estonia) for the best animation short of the festival, decided that Zepe’s last film hadn’t finished its collection of awards that started in the Cinanima in 2007, carried out through 2008 with the Special Prize in Hiroshima and almost ended in Krok in 2009.
Highlighted also was another Portuguese short, PASSEIO DE DOMINGO (Sunday Drive) by José Miguel Ribeiro, because it was the audience’s choice for the best short of the festival.

The animation short films PASSEIO DE DOMINGO (Sunday Drive) by José Miguel Ribeiro and MI VIDA EN TUS MANOS (My Life In Your Hands) by Nuno Beato were selected for international competition at the XII Mecal International Short Film Festival of Barcelona to be held between the 9th and the 18th of April in Barcelona, Spain. Also selected was the animation short by Filipe Abranches, PÁSSAROS (Birds), but for the Oblíqua competition, a section focused on the most innovative and creative works.

The Monstra 2010 Lisboa Animated Film Festival, to be held between the 11th and the 21st of March in Lisbon (Portugal), has selected for the international competition five animated short films of Agência’s catalogue: PÁSSAROS (Birds) by Filipe Abranches, PASSEIO DE DOMINGO (Sunday Drive) by José Miguel Ribeiro, ALGO IMPORTANTE (Something Important) by João Fazenda, MI VIDA EN TUS MANOS (My Life In Your Hands) by Nuno Beato and CÂNDIDO (Candid) by Zepe.

Monstra 2010 gives also the opportunity to get to know better the characters of the most recent stop motion short film by Lorenzo Degl’Innocenti, DESASSOSSEGO (Restlessness), the story of a frustrated butcher called Ivan in his pursuit of a dream in the shape of furniture shop of his own, to take place in the Museu da Marioneta (Puppet Museum) between the 11th of February and the 18th of March.

The Agência da Curta Metragem will attend, once more, the Marché du Film Court de Clermont-Ferrand that this year celebrates the 25th edition between the 30th of January and the 5th of February. As part of the Festival International du Court Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand, the market is the ideal place for exchange between representatives from all branches of short film production worldwide.

It is in this distribution interface where you can find different promotional and distribution actions such as the Video library, the Exhibition hall, the Market screenings and the Professional directory among others, that Agência develops and assures most of its promotional and distribution strategy for Portuguese short films. The Agência stand (#7) at the market, the stand happenings such as the Happy Hour (Tuesday, February 2nd, 5pm), the Portuguese Party at Rat Pack Club (Tuesday, February 2nd, 11pm) and the special market screening (Wednesday, February 3rd, 9am, Salle Georges Conchon) are the highlights of the Agência’s initiatives at Clermont-Ferrand.

The market screening will present some of the new Portuguese shorts: MONTANHA FRIA (Cold Mountain) by Luís Alves de Matos, MI VIDA EN TUS MANOS (My Life in Your Hands) by Nuno Beato, CANÇÃO DE AMOR E SAÚDE (Song of Love and Health) by João Nicolau, PASSEIO DE DOMINGO (Sunday Drive) by José Miguel Ribeiro and PÁSSAROS (Birds) by Filipe Abranches.

This presence at the Clermont-Ferrand’s film festival is also an opportunity for the presentation of Agência, uma década em curtas! (Agência, a decade in short films!), a set of thematic programmes based upon some of the most emblematic Portuguese short films included in the Agência’s catalogue in its ten years of existence.

The fiction short films UM DIA FRIO (Cold Day) by Cláudia Varejão and UM ROUPÃO VERMELHO SANGUE (A Blood-Red Robe) by Pedro Caldas were invited to participate of a special programming called “Spectrum” at the 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam being held between the 27th of January and the 7th of February in Rotterdam (The Netherlands). The festival, a very important landmark in the international film panorama, through this special programme “Spectrum” wants to “... comprise work by experienced film makers and artists who provide, in the opinion of the IFFR, an essential contribution to international film culture.”

UM DIA FRIO (Cold Day) by Cláudia Varejão was selected for the international competition of the 32nd Festival International du Court Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand (France) that will take place between the 29th of January and the 6th of February. The film has been successively awarded in festivals (Tangier, Lille and Monteppelier) and received with good critics in other festivals such as Curtas Vila do Conde (Portugal) and Locarno (Switzerland).
The Clermont-Ferrand film festival, the European major film event for short films, will screen three other Portuguese short films this year besides Cláudia’s short film: I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS by Miguel Angel Vivas within the special programme “Zombies, Vampires and Other Undead” and, HISTÓRIA TRÁGICA COM FINAL FELIZ (Tragic Story With Happy Ending) by Regina Pessoa and RAPACE (Bird of Prey) by João Nicolau as part of the programme “Carte blanche à Aurora Films”.