Directed by Francis Lawrence, ‘The Long Walk’ is presented as an apocalyptic thriller set in a totalitarian America, where a group of young people participates in a relentless walking competition, forced to maintain a minimum speed under threat of execution.
The festival’s closing event, centered at Cinema S. Jorge, will feature the screening of ‘The Home’, a horror tale by James DeMonaco set in a retirement home, as announced in the full program by the organizers.
In July, MOTELX announced this year’s edition would honor women and introduced the Noémia Delgado Award, intended to recognize American producer and screenwriter Gale Anne Hurd, known for films like ‘Aliens’, ‘The Abyss’, ‘Terminator’, and ‘Armageddon’.
Gale Anne Hurd, a guest of honor at the festival, will be in Lisbon to conduct a masterclass.
The Noémia Delgado Award for Notable Women in Horror was established by MOTELX to “recapture the memory of pioneering female authors – often overlooked – while celebrating new female talents redefining contemporary horror.”
The award is named after poet and director Noémia Delgado (1933-2016), “a pioneer of the fantastic in Portuguese cinema and genre films made by women,” as highlighted by the organizers.
The festival’s programming once again highlights Portuguese cinema as a key feature, including three feature films competing for the Méliès d’Argent Award for Best European Feature: ‘Shadows’, a debut in the horror genre by Jorge Cramez, ‘The Pianist’ by Nuno Bernardo, and ‘Beliefs’, “the first entirely Madeiran horror film, created by the comedy group 4Litro.”
Twelve films are competing for the Best Portuguese Horror Short Film Award, “demonstrating the vitality of national horror” and addressing social issues, such as housing insecurity in ‘The Next Step’ by Pedro Batalha, and mental health in ‘Resut’ by Mafalda Jacob.
Portuguese entries for the Méliès d’Argent Award for Best European Short Film include ‘Scream’ by Luís Costa, animations ‘Sequential’ by Bruno Caetano and ‘Banana Yellow’ by Alexandre Sousa, and the film ‘Bubble’ by Fernando Alle.
In the ‘Worship Room’ section, MOTELX will host the first Portuguese screening of ‘The Thousand Eyes of the Assassin’, an Italo-Spanish espionage thriller by director Juan Borsch, filmed in Lisbon a few months before April 25, 1974.
Lisbon was chosen as the location for this film – also shot in Barcelona and Rome, inspired by James Bond and martial arts – “for being an economically accessible city, where political leaders of the time saw a positive opportunity to project an image externally,” explained the festival.
MOTELX will also showcase the comedy ‘A Useful Ghost’ by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, awarded this year at the Cannes Critics’ Week, ‘Opus’, journalist Mark Anthony Green’s directorial debut featuring Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich, and the previously announced Brazilian film ‘Bury Your Dead’ by Marco Dutra, who will also attend Lisbon.
‘Freaky Tales’ by the duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, selected for the Sundance Festival, and ‘The Toxic Avenger’ by Macon Blair, a revisit of the ‘Toxic!’ classic, will also be featured in the festival lineup.
On the 13th, Japanese cinema will be highlighted with screenings of ‘Chime’ by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, ‘Hotspring Sharkattack’ by Morihito Inoue, and ‘New Group’ by Yuta Shimotsu.
In addition to Gale Anne Hurd and Marco Dutra, this edition’s guests include directors Ben Wheatley, Dennis Iliadis, and Julia Kowalski, producer Rodrigo Teixeira, and Austrian filmmaker Norbert Pfaffenbichler, who will present his ‘2551’ trilogy in SectionX.
Cinema S. Jorge, the Portuguese Cinematheque, and the Bombarda Gardens are the main venues for MOTELX.
The full program, schedule, and parallel activities are available on the festival’s website.
