Fauna wins 30th CINEECO, in an edition marked by the launch of the film market

The 30th edition of CineEco marks a historic moment for the Serra da Estrela International Environmental Film Festival. During nine days of intense programming, the festival stood out as an essential meeting point between cinema and environmental causes, offering a diverse program and promoting a space for debate and learning, with the creation of a film market, a space that connected film school students with experienced producers. In addition to contributing to the promotion of ecological awareness, CineEco valued Serra da Estrela as an environmentally sustainable destination, reinforcing its commitment to environmental cinema and reflection on the future of the planet over three decades.

This edition consolidated the transformation begun last year, which established CineEco as a festival entirely dedicated to cinema, also preparing the way for the celebration of 30 years of existence in 2025, a continuous and uninterrupted trajectory since 1995.

The 30th edition marks the birth of Encontros do Mercado, an initiative by CineEco, which is a meeting and networking space between students and players in the Portuguese film market, which sought to bring students from film schools together with experienced film producers and to reach out to new projects laying the foundations for new creations. The producers were very receptive to the projects presented by the students and made valuable contributions, which was a great experience for the students, who left with suggestions and recommendations that could be decisive for the development of their short films. In this first edition of the film market, 6 production companies and 4 educational institutions participated with 10 films/projects. The initiative was considered a success and there is a clear intention to launch a second edition.

"A very interesting opportunity that CineEco provides to these students and I have no doubt about that, it is really interesting for them to be able to be confronted with people in the field. Being confronted by professionals in the field helping to find the way… highly beneficial in the development of their work… I hope the initiative can continue”

Bando Apart – Rodrigo Areias

"Very fruitful meetings, a way to learn about new projects, new perspectives, understand the concerns of people who are still studying and entering the market... I believe in the idea of decentralization of cinema... these are conversations we can have with each other.”

Red Desert – Pedro Neves

The contribution to the development of a deeper ecological awareness is one of the pillars of the festival and CineEco reinforces this role among younger people, with the participation of young students in the screenings of the films in competition.

The festival serves as a space for reflection and debate on environmental issues, not only among filmmakers and producers, but also among researchers, students and the general public. The festival continues to bring together different audiences: the local community, which has the opportunity to watch works beyond the commercial circuit, and visitors from abroad, interested in films with an environmental theme and exploring Serra da Estrela. This edition celebrated the convergence of different generations and sensibilities throughout competitive sessions, special exhibitions, exhibition cycles, concerts, debates and tours.

This year, 15 directors were present at CineEco, in addition to a series of other people linked to the films being shown and other programming activities.

The winners of the 30th edition are already known, an edition that showcased 64 cinematographic works from 27 countries, selected from around 1800 films submitted to the competition.

The International Feature Film Fauna directed by Pau Faus (Spain) is the big winner of the "Grand Environment Prize” at CineEco 2024. This cinematographic work, official selection of the Visions du Réel 2023 festival and awarded at the Toulouse and Guadalajara 2023 festivals, shows a battle between two worlds, one verdant and rural and another that is sterile and technological, which intrinsically depend on each other, in a balance that is apparently impossible to achieve. A window that, although it wants to be sealed, seems to increasingly push against the outside world that encloses it.

The "International Short and Medium Film Award” was awarded to Magnífica: Kutsumaton Vieras de Ville Koskinen (Finland), a documentary film about the coexistence between Finnish vacationers and an unexpected visitor named Pectinatella Magnifica – it is something and there are large quantities of it. The arrival of slimy, green stains in a safe and familiar environment brings uncomfortable sensations to the self-indulgent, middle-class community.

The Portuguese-language feature film Without a Heart by Nara Normande and Tião won the "Camacho Costa/LIPOR Award”. The film portrays the summer of 1996 on the northeast coast of Brazil, where Tamara is preparing to leave the fishing village to study in Brasília. The film was part of the official selection of the Orizzonti exhibition at the 2023 Venice Film Festival and won the award for best Brazilian film at the 2023 São Paulo Film Festival.

The "Short Film Award in Portuguese Language” was awarded to Percebes, by Alexandra Ramires and Laura Gonçalves, also winner of the Crystal Award for best short film at the Annecy 2024 Animation Festival. With the sea and an urban Algarve as a backdrop, we follow a complete life cycle of a special mollusk called PERCEBES. Along the way from its formation to the plate, we come across different contexts that allow us to better understand this region and those who inhabit it.

The Bio Estrela Project by Oliver Couch received the "Regional Panorama Award”, which addresses the weight of the threat of forest fires in the destruction of one of the last natural regions of Portugal, the Serra da Estrela. If the fires continue, Portugal will lose more than the burned trees. You will lose the generations of history and tradition kept alive in the agricultural communities and villages that survive and live off the forests.

Finally, we highlight the winner of the "International Feature Film Youth Award”, the documentary Common Ground, by Joshua Tickell and Rebecca Harrell Tickell (USA). Also awarded at the 2023 Tribeca Festival, it tells the story of the pioneers of regenerative agriculture, with appearances by Jason Momoa, Laura Dern, Rosario Dawson, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson and Ian Somerhalder.

In this 30th edition of CineEco, between the 10th and 18th of October, more than 3500 spectators passed through the Festival rooms, with the important collaboration of the godfathers and godmothers.

This year, once again, there was a series of parallel activities at CineEco such as Encontros no Mercado, Conversas no Jardim, the inauguration of the new Videoarte film exhibition space, the O Estado da Água, Plastic Bitch and Line exhibitions.

As usual, the festival remains alive throughout the year and will continue with a diverse network of extensions throughout the country, in film clubs, associations, theaters, universities and auditoriums, providing the public with films on this theme, constituting as one of the festival’s many differences.

CineEco – Serra da Estrela International Environmental Film Festival is one of the oldest environmental film festivals in the world, which takes place in Seia, annually in October and uninterruptedly, since 1995, on the initiative of the Municipality of Seia. CineEco offers the general public quality cinema and cinematography that is little known and alternative to the traditional market. Entry is free to all editions and all sections or activities, providing a public service.

Through multicultural experiences, CineEco helps to describe and compose a panorama of current global thinking on these issues and provides viewers with moments of knowledge and reflection, with the ambition of generating transformative behaviors and participation, contributing to active citizenship in the field of sustainable development and appreciation of the territory and enrichment of environmental and cinematographic knowledge.

The festival is organized by the Municipality of Seia and has the High Patronage of the President of the Republic and the United Nations Department of the Environment. It also has LIPOR as the main sponsor and financial support from DGArtes. CineEco is curated by Cláudia Marques Santos, Daniel Oliveira and Tiago Fernandes Alves.