First Age

Alberto is 40 years old and lives with his mother in an apartment complex where he works as a concierge. One day, a circus group settles near Alberto’s residence, disturbing his everyday life and awakening his forgotten desire for independence and freedom.

Filmmaker Catarina Vasconcelos sifts through the memories of her ancestors. Her naval officer grandfather, Henrique, who married her grandmother, Beatriz, on her 21st birthday, spent extended periods at sea, leaving her with six children. This is the beginning of a generational saga.

Tradition says that on 13 June, Saint Anthony’s Day (the national holiday of Lisbon’s patron), lovers must offer small vases of basil with paper carnations and flags with popular poems as a token of their love.

Mariana is a young woman looking to fulfill the dream she was once committed with when she left her parents’ house to live with Alex, in Lisbon. When he leaves to New York, she cannot bear what has been left for her. Even though the return seemed unthinkable, she goes back to the North. The burden of failure and the crossing of a legendary river, lead her to an ancient tale: once you cross the river of forgetfulness, your own past will also be forgotten. Alex returns while she is searching for a new setting for herself. He no longer believes in this country. She has gotten closer to the place where everything has started for her. He will leave. She will not return.

The documentary takes a detailed look at the disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann, who vanished while on holiday with her family.

How happy and proud they are those two ladies back in Oporto! Thanks to them, their bright nephew can study medicine in Lisbon and may already have become a doctor. Little do they know, not only Vasco wastes all his time drinking, dancing and picking up girls but he has just failed his final exam! And in that same day, he receives an email from the two aunts announcing their visit to Lisbon! Will he be able to make them believe he is such a good student as they think?

A transgender woman attempts to rehabilitate her younger, drug-addicted boyfriend while also dealing with her ne’er-do-well son, a soldier who’s gone AWOL.

A headlong dive into the deepest, silliest recesses of Abrantes’s unconscious.

Three Portuguese queer short films brought together in a program that charts an alternative path through converging universes, forming a new constellation of desires, fears, and struggles. Entre a Luz e o Nada by Joana de Sousa, Sob Influência by Ricardo Branco, and Uma Rapariga Imaterial by André Godinho are three cinematic gestures that explore techniques and narratives from science fiction to horror, seeking new ways to view and imagine other possibilities. After traveling through various festivals, these films can now be experienced together, in a mutual exploration of mysterious worlds, unsettling dreams, and singular visions.

In a small apartment in the city, a mother and her son live their own secret and silent routines, sharing these not even with each other. They would like to spend time together, perhaps even talk to each other, but he grows up with animals and planets, whereas she is always elsewhere. The long and circular days push them further inside themselves, but maybe the spark of an unexpected connection can still set them free.

Bound by a silent pact, five students make a secret trip to the country for what seems to be an initiation ceremony. In threatening landscapes and abandoned ruins, they submit to the strange rituals of their leader, the Dux.

Gabriel Abrantes and Alexander Melo deconstruct the 1st section of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew as a playful, vibrant ode to bacchanalia, classicism and homoeroticism.

A story of obsessive love and surreal entropy between two people who surrender to absolute desire.

Ara has always believed she will vanish when she turns 28 years old. As her birthday approaches, she submerges in the most fundamental sensations of existence. A masterful debut film from director-writer Ágata de Pinho, whose performance leads her character from trauma to catharsis in the most beautiful way.