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The
Oporto International Film Festival, now going to its 26th edition,
specialises 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.
Situated in
the west corner of Europe, the World Heritage City of Porto hosts
a one of a kind film festival. Founded 24 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 trademark, 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 24th 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.
The festival
is fertile ground for the discovery of new cinematographies, for
"sneak previews" or for launching "difficult"
films like "Bullworth" or "Scream 3" (European
premières). Distributors also frequently test the possible
theatrical impact of their new films in Fantasporto as it was the
case with "South Park" (Warner), Heaven" and "Dogma
( both Miramax) or "Bats" (Columbia). The Fantas awards
are usually used in the promotion in the national market.
It is always pleasant to remember the birth and the development
of the Oporto International Film Festival, since its launching in
1981, still as a non-competitive event, till adulthood in the 1993
edition. Considered by the professional international magazine "Variety"
as one of the 60 top film festivals of the world, and the best as
far as the fantasy genre is considered, Fantasporto has become the
most talked about film and culture event in Portugal.
Since the very beginning, Fantasporto had as goal the creation of
a dynamic forum of all arts, with a strong tendency to show the
best of fantasy films and the diversity of the film world. Through
these 24 years it has presented in competition over 5.000 films
(new feature length and shorts), never released theatrically in
Portugal. The promotion of European and Portuguese films was permanent
as a counterpoint to the north- american film industry.
Many films have
been premiered or been given international recognition at this festival
in Portugal. Some of the past films to have done so include "Le
Dernier Combat" by Luc Besson (1984), Amores Perros" by
Alejandro Gonzalez (2001) and Pedro Almodovar with "Matador".
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learn
a language with a foreign language movie
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Your next holiday
abroad may be some time away, but why not make good use of the evenings
to build up your language skills with a foreign language movie.
Turn the heating up high, snuggle under a blanket on the sofa with
a nice warm drink in your hands … and press play. With a DVD, you
can choose the language for the soundtrack and the language for
the subtitles. With a video, choose to buy it in the original language
version. Always check that the DVD or video
is in the right format and/or region for your particular country
and your particular player ... especially if you are buying on-line.
More
information is available about the Oporto
International Film Festival 2006 on their official website.
For more international film festivals
at Language Advantage Films including:
BAFTA awards on 19 February 2006
Academy Awards on 5 March 2006
Mar del Plata International Film Festival on 9 March 2006
Also,
visit our Language Advantage Films for more
foreign language films and movies and Language
Advantage Courses for more of the best and most innovative language
providers in the world.
For more articles, read our Language
Advantage Features.
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