Vítor Gonçalves

Vítor Gonçalves is a Portuguese filmmaker, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He is considered to be part of The School of Reis film family. Vítor was born in 1951 to Vasco Gonçalves in the Portuguese islands of Azores. After graduating in civil engineering, he became a filmmaker. In 1979, he graduated from the Escola de Cinema do Conservatório Nacional (now Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema) with a degree in filmmaking, where he was a student of António Reis. Vítor has been teaching at the Cinema School since 1982 where he currently runs the directing course. In 1984, Gonçalves, with José Bogalheiro, founded the independent production company Trópico Filmes, a film production company which had considerable influence in Portuguese cinema during the 80s, and where he made his first film as a director in 1986 - A GIRL IN SUMMER . The film had its world premiere at the 1987 Rotterdam Film Festival and was selected that same year for the Berlin Film Festival. It was also the first work in cinema of future director Pedro Costa, as an assistant director. In 1989, Vítor Gonçalves produced Costa's debut film, Blood. Gonçalves spent the following years producing the 1992 film A Nuvem, directed by Ana Luísa Guimarães. THE INVISIBLE LIFE is his most recent feature film. It had its world premiere in the International Competition of Rome Film Festival 2013, and subsequently screened in selection for the Rotterdam Film Festival 2014. The UK premiere was at the Edinburgh Film Festival in June 2014. Lives in Lisbon where he is preparing his new film project.

Works

Blood

Nino, tough but sickly, and his older brother Vicente live in the country with their father. After their father disappears ― we’re never sure why ― murder is suggested. Vicente brings his girlfriend to the house, and a different kind of family is established as the three youngsters grow fiercely protective of each other. But their uncle grows suspicious about the fate of the missing father and forcibly kidnaps Nino, taking him away to the city and leaving Vicente to locate him there.

Release Date1989-12-07

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count26

Meia Noite

A prophetic young woman Ana receives a foreboding vision about her father, dismisses it as superstition, and is devastated when it comes true. She learns that someone in the city foresaw the same fate, and against his wishes, she returns to confront him, only to become the subject of another terrifying prophecy he issues about her own future.

Release Date1988-01-01

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Clouds

Tomás is a young teenager who fights for the leadership of a small marginal group. One night, in the world that he cannot control, his fallout leads to the death of one of the group's members. Laura, the possible witness to the crime, becomes a threat.

Release Date1992-01-24

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

A Girl in Summer

It is the end of summer and Isabel is a relationship with Diogo. She don't quite know what she wants from her life going forward as her father gets sick.

Release Date1986-12-11

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count4

The Invisible Life

There is a long night when Hugo, a civil servant, is sitting on the stairs of the Ministry where he works. He can’t face going home. The images of the mysterious 8 mm films he found in António’s house after he passed away keep coming back to his mind. Hugo remembers the day when Antonio, his superior at the Ministry, told him that he was going to die. Indirectly, Antonio seemed to want to tell him something about Hugo himself. Hugo’s desire to understand what had remained unsaid between the two of them, triggers other memories from the past. Hugo unexpectedly thinks back on the last time he saw the woman he loved, Adriana, and relives once more what he feels has been his unlived life.

Release Date2013-11-13

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count6

Fados

Fados

A series that brings together ten television films that sketch out as many portraits of our daily lives, fictional stories that touch on various aspects of Portuguese life, experiences marked by destiny.

Release Date1989-04-09

DepartmentCreator

JobCreator