LISBON.- Cinemateca Portuguesa’s rentr閑 opens — and continues — with a strong focus on notable figures from international cinema. From directors (Martin Scorsese, No閙ia Delgado, Margaret Tait, Lino Brocka, Rita Azevedo Gomes, Frank Borzage, Hiroshi Shimizu) to actresses (Brigitte Bardot) and film producers (Paulo Branco), these featured and celebrated figures all share a defining role carved out by their works.
In September, Cinemateca launches one of its major film cycles of 2026—likely one of the largest ever held at the institution—which will extend over the coming years. We are referring to a cycle dedicated to one of the most influential figures in Portuguese cinema in recent decades: Paulo Branco, an indelible name in Portuguese film. This journey, which transcends the borders of Portuguese cinema (and even film production itself), will be charted through an ambitious programme spanning every decade of his career as a producer. Paulo Branco will be present at various moments throughout the cycle to talk with the audience and some special guests — such as the French actress and director Fanny Ardant, who will be in Lisbon in September to present CENDRES ET SANG, her debut as director, a Paulo Branco production — about the films in this retrospective. The retrospective opens on September 11 with a screening of Manoel de Oliveira’s NON OU A V GL覴IA DE MANDAR (No, or the Vain Glory of Command).
Continuing with essential names in film history, in September Cinemateca’s screens will welcome one of the most important filmmakers of the New Hollywood generation of the 1970s: Martin Scorsese. Straddling crime and religion — two major pillars that drive the director — it is time to look back (“Scorsese by Scorsese,” back in April 1991, was a Cinemateca retrospective that covered his entire filmography up to the then-recent GOODFELLAS) at a large portion of his extensive career, including films that have not yet had the chance to be seen on the big screen in Portugal.
Also in September, key partnerships already announced include collaborations with the festivals Motelx (Lost in Europe: Horror Behind the Iron Curtain), Queer Lisboa (an anthology of queer films celebrating the festival’s 30th edition), and Operafest (a new deep dive into works where cinema and opera intersect in the Cine-觩era section).
In October, the spotlight falls on three major figures of European and Portuguese cinema. We begin with a retrospective dedicated to Brigitte Bardot, the actress known as one of the greatest icons of the Nouvelle Vague and French cinema during the 1950s and 1960s. After that period, her public persona transformed, making way for a woman devoted to fierce causes, far removed from the screen. A year after her passing, we will look back at Bardot as if for the first time.
That same month, we continue presenting the work of women whose contributions stubbornly remain outside the film canon. Such is the case of Portuguese director No閙ia Delgado, creator of the unique M罶CARAS (Masks), the film that introduced her as a major author of poetic ethnographic cinema. Alongside this, her extensive output for television — most notably the series Contos Fant醩ticos — will now be featured in an exceptionally comprehensive retrospective by Cinemateca, following the exhibition dedicated to her in 2024. Associated with the Cinema Novo Portugu阺 generation, her practice also extended to the visual arts and writing. Her work is deeply influenced by many writers whom she adapted or to whom she dedicated parts of her films. This program will also result in a published edition centered on her legacy.
October will also introduce the work of Lino Brocka, who will be the subject of an ambitious retrospective organized with Doclisboa and in dialogue with Khavn De La Cruz, a multifaceted Filipino artist and specialist in Brocka’s work. Largely unknown and virtually unseen in Portugal, this will be one of the most comprehensive showcases of Brocka’s cinema ever held outside his home country, where he is considered a seminal figure of the local film landscape. The showcase will expand further with another edition of Cadernos da Cinemateca collection accompanying the cycle.
The month concludes with Scottish director Margaret Tait, who will be the subject of one of the largest retrospectives ever dedicated to her filmography, where the relationship between cinema and poetry is a signature mark. The showcase covers films made between the 1950s and 1990s, alongside films about her by directors such as Luke Fowler, Ute Aurand, and Peter Todd. The latter, a leading specialist in Tait’s work, will be in Lisbon to present the cycle.
With the arrival of November, Rita Azevedo Gomes will take the seat as Cinemateca’s guest director, marking the return of the program that invites a wide range of filmmakers to present their own films paired with titles of their choice to create a cinephile dialogue. The program is the result of a close collaboration with the director and will bring many of her collaborators to the sessions, such as Pierre L閛n, among others. A book-catalogue will also be published.
November will also bring another major retrospective dedicated to one of the greatest names in classic American cinema: Frank Borzage. A master of melodrama whose career began during the era of the early pioneers and extended into the early 1960s, Borzage returns to the Cinemateca for a long-awaited retrospective. It will revisit many of the titles from the extensive retrospective held in his honor in the early 1990s. Given the vast scope of the director's work, the cycle will run through January 2027 and will be accompanied by a dedicated publication.
In December, the Cinemateca kicks off the first part of what will certainly be one of the highlights of the 2026–2027 season: the Hiroshi Shimizu retrospective. Following Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, and Naruse, it is now time to showcase the work of one of the masters of Japanese cinema with an extraordinarily comprehensive program — making it the second largest showcase ever outside Japan after the one organized by the Cin閙ath鑡ue fran鏰ise, featuring titles that were not screened there — organized in collaboration with the National Film Archive of Japan. Taking place in December 2026 (with second screenings planned for the following January) and March 2027, the program will feature expert guest speakers, such as journalist and programmer Cl閙ent Rauger, who previously collaborated with the Cin閙ath鑡ue fran鏰ise on retrospectives for directors like Kenji Misumi, Tai Katō, and, of course, Hiroshi Shimizu. This promises to be the major discovery of late 2026 and early 2027 and will also be accompanied by a published book-catalogue.
