This resumption of the festival is, as stated today by the director of Monstra, Fernando Galrito, “an act of resistance”, with face-to-face sessions in the classroom, complying with the rules of safety and distance.
The Lisbon Animation Festival – Monstra, to be held for two decades, should have taken place from March 18th to 29th, in several rooms in Lisbon, but ended up being postponed, with the direction choosing to present some films, only online, in May.
The festival’s return to the cinema will take place from September 29 to October 10, with sessions at São Jorge, City Alvalade, Cinemateca and Cinemateca Júnior.
The opening, on the 29th, at São Jorge, will feature four world premieres: ‘The monkey‘, by Lorenzo Degl’Innocenti and Xosé Zapata, ‘September‘, by Ricardo Mata, ‘Katalog of Flaws‘, by Marv Newland, and ‘The One-Minute Memoir‘, by Joan Gratz.
In the same session, director Regina Pessoa will receive the SPA/Vasco Granja award for the film ‘Tio Tomás, Accounting of Days’.
According to the schedule revealed today, the feature films of the official competition will be shown at City Alvalade, among which are ‘The Swallows of Kabul‘, by Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec, and ‘The Famous Brawl Invasion by the Bears‘, by Lorenzo Mattotti, both selected for Cannes.
The ‘Voyage of the Prince‘, by Jean-François Laguionie and Xavier Picard, ‘Surf your wave‘, by Masaaki Yuasa, ‘Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles‘, by Salvador Simó, ‘The Fantastic Voyage of Marona‘, by Anca Damian, and Rasmus Sivertsen’s ‘Louis and Luca – Mission to the Moon‘ are the remaining features in competition.
Among historical films, works that marked Monstra’s twenty years and that were designed for families, the festival will show, for example, ‘Song of the Sea‘, by Tomm Moore, ‘The King and the Bird‘, by Paul Grimault, ‘Fantasia‘, produced by Walt Disney, and ‘My Life by Courgette‘, by Claude Barras.
In February, when he presented Monstra’s program, Fernando Galrito said that, in twenty years, the festival had a million spectators, half of whom were children and young people, and more than 15 thousand films shown.
