“The email exchange between Carlos Moedas’s office and a private television channel, published today, raises clear doubts about the extraordinary manner in which entities within the city council’s sphere supported a film festival with half a million euros,” stated the PS council members in a statement, referring to the Sábado magazine report on “how Moedas helped SIC secure 500,000 euros.”
BE councilwoman Beatriz Gomes Dias also demanded transparency from Carlos Moedas through a new request for clarification regarding the financial support for the festival, reinforcing the request made in December about the criteria and procedures that led to the allocation of 500,000 euros to Impresa/SIC, without deliberation in a council meeting.
The Lusa agency questioned Carlos Moedas’s office about this financial support, particularly through EGEAC – Lisbon Culture and the Lisbon Tourism Association, and about what is planned for this year’s edition, but has not received a response so far.
According to Sábado magazine, the office of the Lisbon City Council president gave instructions via e-mail to the Impresa/SIC group, responsible for producing Tribeca in Portugal, on how to obtain financial support from the municipality to help cover the organization’s costs for this film festival, while DocLisboa began without municipal support.
From the PS council members’ perspective, the financial support process for the Tribeca festival “started badly from day one, with overlapping dates between Tribeca and Lisbon’s largest documentary festival, DocLisboa.”
“It is incomprehensible that a festival with no tradition received half a million euros from organizations presided over by Carlos Moedas, while the city council allowed DocLisboa to start without any financial support, something that had never happened,” the PS pointed out, noting that, besides the 500,000 euros, the municipality provided non-financial countermeasures, including fee waivers.
Questioning the usefulness of the Municipal Department of Transparency and Corruption Prevention, the socialists stated that the emails known today between the city council president’s office and the Impresa/SIC group, “despite the resistance of the municipal culture company, demonstrate the expedited way the entire process was decided, avoiding even the voting and scrutiny of the remaining council members.”
At today’s private meeting, the socialists questioned the city council’s vice-president, Anacoreta Correia (CDS-PP), who chaired the session in Carlos Moedas’s absence, about the potential support for the next edition of Tribeca, noting “the inability to respond” and predicting that “taxpayers’ money” will again be used to sponsor this event, along with the media exposure of the PSD mayor.
Considering it “unacceptable that public funds are allocated without scrutiny,” the BE demanded access to all documents and communications related to the support for Tribeca, given the lack of response to the previous request and “the gravity of the information now disclosed.”
The Citizens for Lisbon (elected by the PS/Livre coalition) argued that support for major international events like Tribeca is a “wrong” choice, stating that the money spent on this festival alone could cover all municipal support requests in the cultural field.
The organization of the 1st edition of Tribeca in Lisbon received 750,000 euros in public support, specifically from Turismo de Portugal (250,000 euros), under the Ministry of Economy, from the Lisbon Tourism Association (250,000 euros), of which the Lisbon municipality is one of the founding members, and from the municipal company EGEAC – Lisbon Culture (250,000 euros), which manages cultural facilities and activities in the capital.
In addition to public support, Tribeca raised 615,000 euros in sponsorships, 95,985 euros from ticket sales, and 3,389 euros from food and beverage sales, totaling 1,464,374 euros in revenue, but expenses totaled 1,825,168 euros, resulting in a loss of 360,794 euros.
The 2nd edition of the Tribeca Festival Lisbon will take place from October 30 to November 1 this year, once again at the Hub Criativo do Beato, with the promise of “improved spaces, enhanced screenings, and an even more welcoming atmosphere.”
