The event in the district of Aveiro and the Porto Metropolitan Area, running until June 29, offers an opportunity to analyze what the event director, Fernando Vasquez, describes as “the giant leap” Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made in world cinema over just one year, alongside the predominance of housing as a recurring theme in Portuguese productions—further influenced by foreign filmmakers residing in Portugal.
The international sociopolitical landscape is also reflected in the 2025 edition, as is customary for the festival. Among the competitive section entries, the film ‘Mad bills to pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo)’ stands out. Touted as “one of the great American films of 2025 and destined for the Oscars,” it employs Joel Alfonso Vargas’s directorial style to depict how an unplanned pregnancy impacts a Dominican family living in the United States.
The other two noteworthy entries are ‘Lesson Learned,’ where Hungarian Bálint Szimler explores a high school setting to reflect on the education system after 15 years of Viktor Órban’s governance, and ‘Happy Hollidays,’ in which Palestinian Scandar Copti offers an “intimate and humanistic” view to expose the challenges faced by families like his own living in Israel under a “specific legal regime.”
Additional selections include ‘Spring Came On Laughing’ by Noha Adel, shedding light on the hidden lives of Egyptian women; ‘The Good Sister’ by Sarah Miro Fischer, tackling gender violence and family dilemmas; and ‘Cactus Pears’ by Rohan Kanawade, debuting an LGBTQIA+ love story in India.
In the national competition, where plots revolving around housing issues prevail, Fernando Vasquez highlights ‘First Date,’ the debut film by Luís Filipe Borges, more widely recognized as a television presenter. Also featured is ‘Arriba Beach,’ directed by Indian Nishchaya Gera, residing in Portugal. It is described as “the first Portuguese erotic thriller with an LGBT connotation,” starring Inês Herédia.
For the panoramic view, the focus is on Georgian cinema as a tool of political resistance. The FEST presents a program of short and feature-length films by authors such as Rusudan Glurijdze, Elene Mikaberidze, and Tornike Koplatadze—a generation of filmmakers distinguished “by formal audacity and commitment to the present.”
The Training Ground program, aimed at professionals and students in the sector, will include masterclasses by speakers such as Spanish Lucas Ortiz Estefanell, an expert in immersive cinema; British Martin Percy, awarded for his use of AI; Iranian Kaveh Farnam, who will teach ways to circumvent censorship when filming in politically oppressive countries; Filipino Brillante Mendoza, who will deliver a class on guerrilla filmmaking; French Philippe Rousselot, a cinematographer used to working with Tim Burton; and British Chris King, an expert in documentary editing who has evoked figures like Amy Winehouse, Ayrton Senna, and Banksy.
