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40th INTERNATIONAL THESSALONIKI FILM FESTIVAL
NOVEMBER 12-21
FERNANDO LOPES
ALBERTO SEISA SANTOS
A TRIBUTE TO PORTUGUESE CINEMATOGRAPHY
The tribute to PORTUGUESE CINEMAtography was presented by the president of the Film Festival, Michael Demopoulos and two directors, Fernando Lopes and Alberta Seisa Santos, who are of the most significant representatives of "Novo Cinema".
"PORTUGUESE CINEMAtography is very important in Europe, with a multitude of divergence, a notable wealth of themes and forms, and significant names", stated Michael Demopoulos as he presented the tribute. It consists of 16 films that cover the last 25 years of PORTUGUESE CINEMAtography, a retrospective of the most significant directors.
During the 60's, a new generation of cinematographers (Paolo Rocha, Fernando Lopes, Antonio de Macedo and others) makes its appearance with directors who have studied abroad and have evident influences from the French nouvelle vague. These directors create the new movement in PORTUGUESE CINEMAtography ("novo cinema").
Fernando Lopes made references to the conditions that led to the creation of this movement: "During that period there was a political and cultural wretchedness, there was a need for a new cinema, creative, artistic and independent from the government. Initially, we found a producer, Antonio de Cuhna Telles, who accepted to finance our films and was driven to bankruptcy because of it. It was a difficult cinema with a limited audience, mostly from the "cine-club" area, which at the time, was composed of important cultural groups".
In 1968, a "company" for cinematography artists was financed for the first time. One of its priorities was for cinematography to return to Oliveira. Manuel de Oliveira is the most important chapter in PORTUGUESE CINEMAtography, traverses the entire span of its course, from the end of silent films until today, and films one or two movies per year (he is currently in Brazil filming his new movie).
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Official Sponsors of the 40th International Thessaloniki Film Festival are:
ERT, TOYOTA YARIS, EOT
Dewars Audience Award
OLYMPION TSANTALIS
Afterwards, Alberto Seisa Santos made references to today's situation of PORTUGUESE CINEMAtography and the conditions of production and distribution.
"There are two types of Portuguese films: the ones belonging to commercial cinema, that guarantee their distribution, are supported through advertisements by private television, and sell 150,000 - 200,000 tickets, and the ones belonging to the artistic PORTUGUESE CINEMA. For the latter, production is difficult, their directors have second jobs to support themselves and the films are mainly supported by state. These films have difficulties with their distribution to PORTUGUESE CINEMA theaters and sell between 10,000 and 50,000 tickets", said Alberto Seisas Santos and concluded, "It is this cinema that we must preserve".
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