A look back at 2008

29th OPORTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL FANTASPORTO 2007
February 20th till March 1st

The Oporto International Film Festival, now going to its 29th edition, specializes in fantasy and science-fiction films in its Official Competitive section.
This Festival also includes the 16th New Directors Week with an Official Competition and a Retrospective section. The Festival’s director, Mário Dorminsky, is preparing, with the help of the Portuguese Film Institute, a program with Portuguese Films for the benefit of the foreign guests in Fantasporto.
The Festival runs now in 5 theatres (2,600 seats altogether ) and screens nearly new 200 feature films each year. The press coverage of the Festival is made by all the most important Portuguese newspapers, radio stations and television networks and by foreign specialized press. This allows press dossiers of about 5000 clippings every year and represents a unique media coverage in Portugal for similar cultural events. Almost 110,000 entries, per year is the average of the Festival’s past editions.
Entry´s till December 15th 2008. Short´s and Features only 35mm. Please consult regulations.

Going now to its 29th edition, Fantasporto has brought to Portugal for the first time the films of such names as David Cronenberg, André Tarkovsky, Brian de Palma, John Carpenter, Alain Resnais, David Lynch, Pedro Almodovar, Andrzej Zulawski, Ridley Scott, Luc Besson, Peter Greenaway, Neil Jordan, Jean-Jacques Beneix, Joel and Ethan Cohen, Sam Raimi, Brian Yuzna, Peter Jackson, Hal Hartley, Anthony Minghella, Quentin Tarantino, Roberto Rodriguez, Danny Boyle, Paul Anderson, David Fincher, James Mangold, the Wachowski Brothers, Scott Hicks, Scott Reynolds and the Dutch director and Oscar winner Mike Van Diem, among many others.

Situated in the west corner of Europe, the World Heritage City of Porto hosts a one of a kind film festival. Founded 25 years ago by a group of film fans and critics, Fantasporto, as it is known, started as a haven for sci-fi and fantasy films , a then not too well seen genre. After a huge sucesss in the first two years, the festival has broaden its horizons with thrillers and seven years later with a New Directors competition. Although fantasy is still its trade mark, especially for the Portuguese press, it is recognized as the biggest in Portugal and one of the most important in Europe.

Giving space to big screen productions, to autheur films and to experimental projects from all over the world, Fantasporto has created enthusiastic audiences, ranging from cinephiles to more popular spectators, with an annual average of 110,000 film goers. In its 27th edition in February the festival reached 104,000 people and 5,000 media references (both national and international) with a record of 187 hours of TV time. Present in Oporto were circa 100 members of the foreign press and about 250 Portuguese journalists and media representatives.
In spite of being organized by a private entity, the event is mostly State funded, with the Ministry of Culture leading and the President of the Republic as head of the Honour Committee, and with private sponsors backing strongly, responding to the festival’s crowd appeal.

Filmmakers who wish to submit their work can get all the details from the online entry form
Download the form here PDF

Link in Filmfestivalspro.com Database