Cinalfama Lisbon International Film Festival needs to be on your list

Film festivals around the world are looking for your best work, offering you exposure on an international level. But when a story is intimate and personal to you, it’s hard to find a festival that can acknowledge that and treat your film with the utmost respect. 

Look no further than the Cinalfama Lisbon International Film Festival. The film festival held in the Alfama quarter of Lisbon, is designed to offer a more intimate experience with films that tell stories close to the heart. Whether you’re capturing a personal tragedy, first love, or even the city you love dearly, there’s room for you to be open. 

If you want the top Portugese filmmakers to take a look at the work that truly represents you, this is the festival to enter this year. With the 2020 festival coming up in July, there’s still time to submit your work in. 

An intimate location for an intimate event

If you’re brave enough to expose your soul to the thousands in attendance, you’ll be doing it in Lisbon’s oldest cultural club. Opened in 1914, Grupo Sportivo Adicense has been thriving through over a century of cultural change in the city. 

Considering the Cinalfama Lisbon International Film Festival started out as informal screenings in the alleyways of Alfama, it’s always been about giving the filmmakers a moment to bare their truth to the audience. Even though it changed in 2016 to become an international film festival, its mission didn’t change.

Events year round, categories galore

With an event for every season, there’s plenty of opportunities to win with the Cinalfama Lisbon International Film Festival. You can enter your project, clean it up, and resubmit for the next season if you’re ready to try again. Plus, you don’t have to wait a full year if you finish your project, you just have to wait three months max. 

For traditional categories, you could win best short, best medium or feature film, best debut film, best screenplay, best director, and best actor. But the Cinalfama Lisbon International Film Festival offers other competitions, including best soundtrack and best script. 

But unique solely to the Cinalfama Lisbon International Film Festival is the City in Film award. Focusing on using Alfama as a character in the film, whether the film is about Alfama or Alfama helps build the theme of the film, this award is given out specifically at the spring event. 

Voices around Lisbon and Portugal

While there aren’t any traditional prizes, anyone who enters the festival will get their films seen by the top stars in the Portugal film industry. Panelists include directors like Berlinale festival winner Leonor Teles and Locarno special mention recipient Pedro Cabeleira. 

By participating in the Cinalfama Lisbon International Film Festival, you’ll also get yourself a recommendation to one of the festival’s sister fests, like ECU Paris, Lisbon Film Rendezvous, and Blue Danube Film Festival. It’s like getting an extra festival admission just for submitting to this one. 

If you’re sold on entering the Cinalfama Lisbon International Film Festival, entries are still open for the Spring showcase. Submit your work on FilmFreeway by July 10th, even though you’ll only be paying nine euros max for a fee at the extended deadline. This is not the festival to miss out on.