This will be the 19th edition of the IndieLisboa festival, opening with a film by António de Macedo that promotes Algarve tourism and a feature film by José Álvaro de Morais, between documentary and fiction, between Lisbon and the Algarve.

The two works were restored within the scope of the FILMar project, by Cinemateca Portuguesa, with European funding, aimed at preserving the Portuguese film heritage related to the theme of the sea.

This year, IndieLisboa will feature around 250 films and the most extensive national feature film competition ever, with several works already premiered at foreign festivals.

This competitive section includes "Super Natural", by Jorge Jácome, "Águas do Pastaza", by Inês T. Alves, "Rua dos Anjos", by Renata Ferraz and Maria Roxo, "Atrás Dessas Paredes", by Manuel Mozos, and "Journey to the Sun", by Susana de Sousa Dias and Ansgar Schaefer.

They are joined by "Via Norte", by Paulo Carneiro, "Mato Seco em Chamas", by Adirley Queirós and Joana Pimenta, "Frágil", by Pedro Henrique, and "O Trio em E Flat", by Rita Azevedo Gomes.

In the short film competition, the direction chose works by "established authors and new filmmakers", including, for example, "Domy + Ailucha - Cenas Kets!", by Ico Costa, awarded at Cinema du Réel, "By Flávio" , by Pedro Cabeleira, premiered in Berlin, and "Becoming a Man in the Middle Ages", by Pedro Neves Marques, awarded at the Rotterdam Film Festival.

Sessões Especiais 2022 | Trailer | O Jovem Cunhal

Out of competition, the highlight is a double debut by director João Botelho, who will present "O Jovem Cunhal", about Álvaro Cunhal, and "Uma Coisa em Forma de Assim", a film dedicated to the writer Alexandre O'Neill.

IndieLisboa will also premiere "Sita - A Vida e o Tempo", by Margarida Cardoso, about the anti-colonialist and communist activist Sita Valles, and "Um nome para o que sou", by Marta Pessoa, about Maria Lamas and the book "As women of my country".

This year's retrospective will be dedicated to American director Doris Wishman, "a pioneer of female 'sexploitation' in cinema", author of "boldly erotic and proto-feminist" films, who died in 2002.

In the "Silvestre" section will be, for example, "Coma", by Bertrand Bonello, and "Rimini", by Ulrich Seidl, while the IndieMusic program will open with the documentary "Cesária Évora", by Ana Sofia Fonseca, and will also feature films about Carlos Zíngaro, the Telectu, Patti Smith and Courtney Barnett, among others.

The festival's closing, on May 8, will be with the national premiere of "A Viagem de Pedro", a Portuguese-Brazilian historical drama by Laís Bodanzky about the former Emperor of Brazil, back in Portugal.

In addition to cinema São Jorge, IndieLisboa will take place at Culturgest, Cinemateca Portuguesa and Cinema Ideal.

The entire program is at www.indielisboa.com.