Fantastic voyage around the world in Fantasporto,

Fantasporto enters the final stretch with the presentation of films that show the varied and imaginative cinematographic production that takes place outside the Hollywood matrix, which dominates the world cinema exhibition. From Taiwan to Hungary, from Russia to the United Arab Emirates, from Brazil to the Philippines, it is a challenge to the 'unique model' of the American film industry that is offered to the Portuguese cinema audience in these two weeks of cinema that Fantasporto presents in the Theater Rivoli, in Porto.

The journey of Wednesday in the Great Auditorium opened with the exhibition, at 15:30, of "A Mata Negra", by Brazilian Rodrigo Aragão, a horror film, about a young woman who lives in the forest where she has to face the demons, the spirits of the other world, dead who are resurrected and, above all, a preacher who demonizes her. A great production of Globo with Carol Aragão, Jackson Antunes and Francisco Gaspar, full of special effects by the director himself, Rodrigo Aragão, who already has several films of the fantastic genre selected for Fantaspoa (in Porto Alegre, Brazil) and Festival of Sitges (Catalonia, Spain).

At 5:30 pm, "Kuya Wes" by James Robin Mayo, an international comedy about a shy and honest bank employee who falls in love with a client, Erika, who is in trouble financial institutions. When he decides to help her with money from his pocket, his brother, with whom he shares the house, does not agree and forces him to change and things get complicated.

At 9:00 p.m., "Werewolf" by the Polish Adrian Panek, a horror drama centered on a group of children released from a Nazi concentration camp who find refuge in a mansion, where also a pack of guard dogs same field that forces them to return to fight for survival. A film that already holds the Best Film Award at the Polish Film Festival 2018.

The program for this room ends at 11:00 PM, plus one of the high points of the day, "Daddy's Girl" by Julian Richards (director of "The Last Horror Movie" and "Darklands"), both awarded in Fantasporto). investigation of missing persons leads a rookie police officer and a missing unit guard to meet a serial killer who uses his daughter to lure his victims.

In the Small Auditorium, at 15:15, another session consecrated the contestants to the Portuguese Film Prize, Mention Best School, with the nominations of the University of Minho Film School, with six short films, followed by the four presented by the Escola Superior do Porto (ESAP).

At 5:15 p.m., he returned to Taiwan's film retrospective, with Chen Hung-Min's "Vengeance of the Phoenix Sisters" (1968), a European debut.

"Albatroz" by Brazilian Daniel Augusto, is shown at 9:15 pm, in a European debut, a thriller written by Braulio Mantovani, screenwriter of "Tropa de Elite" and "Cidade de Deus", which gave him an Oscar nomination, with Alexandre Nero, Andrea Beltrão and Maria Flor.

Wednesday's show in this room ends at 11:15 p.m., with Rebekah and David McKendry's All the Creatures Were Stirring on a strange Christmas night in a strange theater room depicting a series of bizarre and scary Christmas stories , sharing the show with a series of characters who try to escape the horrors of the time.

Today Thursday, the Rivoli Grand Auditorium opens at 3:30 p.m. with "Isabelle", an American-Canadian co-production of Robert Heydon, about a young couple tormented by a diabolical neighbor.

It follows at 5:30 p.m. in a European prelude, "Painting Life" by Indian Biju Kumar Damodaran, about a shooting team led by a successful Bollywood director who arrives in a remote village in the Himalayas to film a sequence of dance and music. Soon they are isolated from the world after torrential rains and mudslides, without technology or means of communication, totally at the mercy of the forces of the nature. This is the first English-language film by the director whose work has been regularly screened at the Cannes and Montreal festivals, winner of 12 national and international awards.

"Nancy," the first feature film by American director Christina Choe, is shown at 9 pm, focusing on the drama of a young woman who slowly becomes convinced she has been kidnapped as a child. When he meets a couple whose daughter disappeared 30 years ago, soon their doubts give way to conviction. With Andrea Riseborough ("Birdman"), Steve Buscemi and John Leguizamo, this film was awarded at the Sundance Festival and selected for the festivals of Deauvile and Sitges, where Andrea Riseborough won the female interpretation prize.

Fantasporto's Grand Auditorium day-to-day eve ends with the screening of "His Master's Voice" by Hungarian Gyorgy Palfi ("Taxidermy" director, Fantasporto Public Prize 2007) at 23:00, also competing with Fantastic Film Award. Treat