Made in Mozambique ‘Mosquito’ among four films nominated to be Portuguese candidates for best international film at 2021 Oscars

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Made in Mozambique ‘Mosquito’ among four films nominated to be Portuguese candidates for best international film at 2021 Oscars

7:05 CAT | 03 Nov 2020

Photo courtesy: Leopardo Filmes

“Mosquito” by João Nuno Pinto, “Patrick” by Gonçalo Waddington, “Listen” by Ana Rocha de Sousa, and “Vitalina Varela” by Pedro Costa are the films nominated to be the Portuguese candidate for Best International Film at the Oscars.

The Portuguese Film Academy announced on Monday “the four films nominated for Best International Film at the 93rd edition of the Oscars”, in April 2021, chosen “from among 33 eligible feature films”.

The four nominees were chosen by a “pre-selection committee” composed of director and producer Gonçalo Galvão Teles, actress Isabel Abreu, director Lauro António, director of photography Miguel Sales Lopes, director Monique Rutler and actor and director Welket Bungué.

The process of choosing the Portuguese candidate “will now go through a voting period among the members of the Portuguese Film Academy, which will take place from 2 to 15 November, until the unveiling of the selected film, which will be announced on 16 November”.

The 93rd edition of the Oscars is scheduled for April 25, 2021 in Los Angeles, United States of America.

“Listen”, produced by Bando à Parte, is Ana Rocha de Sousa’s first fiction feature film, a family drama inspired by real facts, about a family of Portuguese emigrants in London, from whom custody of their children is taken on suspicion of mistreatment.

The film, which has won six prizes, was premiered in Portuguese cinemas on 21 October.

“Mosquito”, by João Nuno Pinto, had its world premiere in January at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and arrived in Portugal at the beginning of March, shortly before the closure and declaration of the state of emergency because of Covid-19.

Portugal’s candidate for the Best Ibero-American Film category at the 35th Goya Awards in February 2021, the Oscars of Spain, “Mosquito” tells the story of Zacarias, “a young Portuguese thirsting for heroic adventures during the First World War.

“Patrick”, the first feature film by actor and director Gonçalo Waddington, is a fiction about identity and individuality, against the backdrop of kidnapping and paedophilia.

The film premiered in June in Portuguese cinemas, is about a young adult in Paris from whom one discovers his true identity; Patrick is Mário, a Portuguese man who had been kidnapped and separated from his family in Portugal at the age of 12.

Pedro Costa’s “Vitalina Varela” debuted in 2019 at the Locarno Festival in Switzerland, where it received the top prize, the Golden Leopard, as well as the protagonist, Vitalina Varela, who was doubly awarded best actress.

Since then the film has been screened in more than 50 film festivals, film archives and cycles dedicated to Pedro Costa, having been awarded at most exhibitions, such as the San Francisco Film Festival in the United States in April, which gave the director the “Persistence of Vision” award.

The film, produced by OPTEC, tells the story of a woman who lived much of her life waiting to go to her husband, Joaquim, who emigrated to Portugal. Knowing that he died, Vitalina Varela arrived in the country three days after the funeral.

Source: Lusa