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43rd OPORTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL | FANTASPORTO’2023

From today till March 5th at Batalha CC

FILMS, GUESTS AND A WARM WELCOME 

Fantasporto 2023 opens today. The rush now is creating the best conditions for our guests, coming from all parts of the world.  Set in the beautiful restored BATALHA, home of all things cinema in Oporto, Fantasporto is the next meeting place for cinema lovers.

68 countries sent films for selection, resulting in a selection of 86 premières in Portugal, with all sorts of genres, most of them competing in the three main categories: Fantasy, Directors Week and Orient Express, for all Asian features in all competitions.

With many World, International and European Premières, the Oporto Festival is opening on the 24th February.  British film “Shepherd”, by Russell Owen, with Tom Hughes (Victoria”) and Kate Dickie (“Game of Thrones”), about a man who isolates himself from the world, kicks off the Fantasy competition and the film marathon that lasts 10 days. The director, Russell Owen, from UK, will attend the screening.

For the Closing and Award giving Ceremony which will happen on the 4th March, the festival screens the International première of the Turkish film, “Once Upon a Time in the Future: 2121”, by Serpil Altin, a new approach, this time by a woman director, to “1984”  by George Orwell and, no doubt, an unexpected view on the dangers of dictatorships, a very current subject as people know. The director Serpil Altin will also attend the screening.

A very special part of the program is the screening of the “The Melchior Trilogy”, 3 features presented on the final Saturday. Celebrated director Elmo Nüganen, from Estonia, will present in a special masterclass about his work, a big budget production set in the end of the Middle Ages, when the Inquisition colides with the birth of modern science. 

Also arriving to Oporto are most of the directors of the films in the competitions and those with retrospectives.

Filipino producer Ferdinand Lapuz is coming, As are the recipents of two Tributes, both coming from the UK, one for the celebration of the 25 years of the release of the awarded feature “Darklands” by Julian Richards, and “Mute Witness”, a thriller by Anthony Waller. Also Vanessa Toca, will come, representing The Freak Agency from Spain. 

Masters and first -time directors coincide in the final line-up. 

In the Fantasy competition, which begins with the Opening British film “Shepherd”, about a man who seeks isolation, we will have a wide range of films. Ukraine presents “Sashenka”, by Alexander Zhovna, a powerful incursion in children trauma, 

“Exhibit 8” by Ruben Broekhuis, from the Netherlands, with the director attending the festival, takes us to the drama of unaccompanied migrant children and “The Thing Behind the Door”, from French director Fabrice Blin, also attending the festival, revisits and modernizes a classic horror subject. 

“Convenience Story” begins when a man abandons a dog, Canadian “Cult Hero” reminds us of dangerous sects in an unusual comedy, Belgian “Megalomaniac” by Belgian Karim Ouelhaj, shows how an inheritance doesn’t always bring money, with its director presenting screening.

”Demigod: the legend begins” takes us to the world of animé and Asian superheroes. Italian “Dead Bride” by Francesco Piconewho is coming to the screening, follows a story of vengeance,

Highly waited is “Immersion” by Takeshi Shimizu, twice a Fantasporto winner, which speaks of science and old legends. The director’s presence is still to be confirmed. “Bad City” presents the violence of the yakuza versus the politically ambitious. Also British “The Ghost Writer” strikes a note about Muses and plagiarism, a screening in the presence of it director Paul Wilkins.

 Portuguese “S.Ó.S.”, by Tiago Santos, about survival in a hostile world, is a rare national film to meet the selection criteria. Also screened are Malaysian “Stone Turtle”, a love story intertwined with old legends, or American “They Wait in the Dark” by Patrick Rea,  in the presence of its leading actress, Laurie Winkel, follows the escape route of two fugitives. 

Bound to create a lot of buzz is the presence in Porto of members of the cast and the crew of Japanese “Life of Mariko in Kabukicho” which presents a woman detective involved in strange stories of murder and extra-terrestrials.  A fabulous shorts selection in competition in the Fantasy section, includes productions which are rarely seen in Europe, such as Singapore or Colombia. 

In the Directors Week, it is time for Venice Festival winners, Krzysztof Zanussi with “Perfect Number” in competion and in the presence of its legendary director, about a dying man with an inheritance, and Milcho Manchevsky with “Kaymak”, a few urban stories about responsibility and motherhood,  also coming to Porto. 

It is also time to meet in person  Greek Vassilis Mazomenos who brings “Purgatory” about the aftermath of the economic crisis and pandemic, or Dutch  Martijn de Jong  with “Narcosis”, a film about a woman who needs to start again and is, in fact, the candidate of the Netherlands to the Oscars. 

Face next the ferocity of TM Malones “Kargo”, about a woman who takes her dead husband position as a driver, gets involved in child trafficking and finds a new friend and “Ritual” by Hans Herbots  (with the director attending the festival)  takes us to the harsh aftermath of Belgian colonialism. 

The Hungarian political intrigue under the Soviet regime in “The Game” by Péter Fazakas, shows the dangers of spying under the soviets. Filipino “About Us but Not About us” is about a meeting in a restaurant between two gay men with dark secrets revealed and “The Grandson” by Oscar winner Kristof Déak, from Hungary, shows how old people are exploited by unscrupulous people. 

 A VERY WARM WELCOME TO OPORTO, CITY OF PORT WINE, A CITY OF THE RIVER DOURO AND THE ATLANTIC OCEAN, TWICE BEST EUROPEAN DESTINATION. 

COME MEET THE FABULOUS WORLD OF FILM FANTASY AND FACT IN FANTASPORTO 2023. 

WELCOME TO FANTASPORTO 2023!