Featuring a new visual identity, while remaining faithful to its core territories – memory, archive, and ethnography – the festival once again affirms itself as a vital platform for exploring alternative forms of cinematic creation, fostering dialogue between cinema, other arts, and fields of critical thought.

The main focus of this year’s edition is dedicated to the work of American filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt, an essential figure in contemporary experimental and archival cinema. Twice nominated for an Academy Award, Rosenblatt has created over thirty-five films across three decades, delving deep into emotional and psychological terrain with an aesthetic that is both intimate and universal. The festival presents a selection of seventeen short films, made between 1990 and 2025, offering an expansive view of his body of work. The program also includes a conversation with American researcher Jaimie Baron, one of the most prominent contemporary thinkers on cinema, memory, and archival practices.

The competitive section maintains its established structure, organized around two main thematic strands: “Lives and Places”, exploring the aesthetic representation of daily life, environments, and biographies; and “Memory and Archive”, focusing on temporality and the poetic appropriation of testimony and found footage. As in previous years, there is also space reserved for fiction, broadening the festival’s aesthetic and narrative scope. A total of twenty-two films from eighteen countries have been selected, to be screened across nine  competition sessions.

In collaboration with the Aesthetics, Politics and Knowledge research group of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Porto, this edition also features three masterclasses that cross boundaries between cinema, philosophy, and contemporary art practices. Jaimie Baron presents Archival Anticipations, a reflection on visual strategies for articulating time and the way archival materials evoke a sense of future retrospection. Iranian filmmaker Firouzeh Khosrovani presents the masterclass Family Portrait: Uncovering Hidden Narratives, where she explores cinema as an art of revealing the invisible, while addressing the challenges and possibilities of filmmaking as a woman in Iran – followed by a screening of her acclaimed feature Radiograph of a Family. Multimedia artist Mohammad Salemy presents the masterclass Computational Contemplation: Cinema in the Eyes of AI, expanding on the conceptual framework behind his video installation The Burg of Babel, which will be on view throughout the festival at the Galeria Nuno Centeno, starting October 13. 

The exhibition program also extends to other cultural venues in the city. At Passos Manuel, Luísa Sequeira will present the video installation Almakina. At Lounge Ageas - Coliseu Porto Ageas, the photographic exhibition Pausas e Assobios (Pauses and Whistles), by Mariana Caló and Francisco Queimadela, will be inaugurated. And the performance cycle Private Collection, in collaboration with the Institute of Philosophy, also returns with live acts by Angélica Salvi (Miscelânea), Deeogo Oliveira (Urbino), and Emídio Agra (Rue Rosa Bonheur), taking place at the Casa Comum / Rectory of the University of Porto on October 14.

This year, the Family Film Project is joining forces with the Italian festival Unarchive Found Footage Film Fest, presenting four Italian films that creatively reinvent archival footage on October 15, at 6:00 p.m., Batalha Centro de Cinemar: Superheroes without Superpowers by Beatrice Baldacci, Lo chiamavano Cargo by Marco Signoretti, In Her Shoes by Maria Iovine, and Bluescreen by Alessandro Arfuso and Riccardo Bolo.

As in previous editions, the festival continues its educational outreach with the children’s and youth workshop Histórias que Brilham (Stories That Shine), led by filmmaker and visual artist Tânia Dinis, whose presence at the festival has been consistent and multifaceted.

The Family Film Project extends its heartfelt thanks to the institutions and partners that support its programming, with special recognition to Balleteatro, the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Porto, and the School of Media Arts and Design (ESMAD, P.Porto). We also thank the Batalha Centro de Cinema for hosting the event and the Porto City Council for its essential support. Special thanks as well to Canal 180, official sponsor of this year’s festival awards.

We wish you an inspiring Family Film Project 2025!