The 24th edition of the Arouca Film Festival kicks off Wednesday and, until the 19th, will have in competition 36 short films and four long, most of which with Spanish production and focus on “complexity of human relations”.
© Frank Molter/picture alliance via Getty Images
06/09/2026
by
Lusa
The analysis is by the director of the event whose main activity takes place in the said municipality of the district of Aveiro, but also includes initiatives in São João da Madeira and Porto, as is the case of two lectures with the Spanish Miquel Salom, expert in handmade photography using collodium plates.
“ The Spanish cinema marks the competitive sections of this edition because, in the 40 films that will compete for the FOX awards, 18 works are from this country ", says João Rita.
Selected from more than 500 applications submitted under free registration, the titles to be presented to the public in 2026, always in sessions also with free entry, include productions from Portugal, Brazil, United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, Iran and Russia, in which the festival director says to note a significant presence of “young talent”.
“ It is a wide show of films coming from all over the world, fair by renowned directors and young promises ", says João Rita. “It is also evident the technical innovation of international approaches, which contrast with Portuguese cinema and show new ways of filming and narrating”, he argues.
This results in a significant “cultural diversity, with distinct views that enrich the dialogue between creators and their audiences”.
Of the various works that compete for the categories of fiction, documentary, animation, videoclip and experimental cinema, the director of the Arouca Film Festival highlights, in the Portuguese selection, the 10-minute short film “Sophie’s Bakes”, by Hugo Coelho. “It’s an intense film and is well done, with great technical care. It is an example for the new Portuguese cinema”, declares.
As for the foreign sample, it highlights the “soft cinema” of “Lighthouse”, an 18-minute German-Iranian production directed by Sahar Nouhi. “He talks about the lack of freedom in Iran, about the distance and the longing for someone who had to leave his country, his family and his whole history. It is a careful filmic construction, in a mix of Iranian and European cinema”, he concludes.