Doclisboa will return for its 23rd edition from 16 – 26 October 2025, screening across Culturgest, Cinema São Jorge, Cinemateca Portuguesa, and Cinema Ideal. The festival presents 211 films from 54 countries.
The «International Competition» gathers 12 films, including seven world premieres, three international premieres, one European premiere, and three debut works. The Portuguese Competition also features 12 titles, with seven world premieres, one European premiere, and four national premieres.
The «New Visions» section continues to trace cinema’s evolving forms, bringing together works produced between 1896 and 2025. The program links early experiments by Gabriel Veyre—a cameraman for the Lumière brothers—to new films by Hassen Ferhani, Javier Rebollo, Marko Grba Singh, and Margarita Ledo Andión. Egyptian artist-filmmaker Hala Elkoussy is the guest director, with a focus on her politically engaged and formally inventive body of work.
A dedicated spotlight shines on #Minh Quý Trương#, whose films—both solo and in collaboration with Nicolas Graux—interweave fiction, non-fiction, ethnography, and science fiction to examine Vietnam’s histories and present realities. This year’s program also presents Shadowboxing, devised by Doclisboa associate programmer Cíntia Gil and French critic Jean-Pierre Rehm. Borrowing the boxing exercise as metaphor, it proposes an imaginary confrontation that takes #Palestine as a moral, aesthetic, and historical horizon.
In «Heart Beat,» notable titles include Cast of Shadows (Sami van Ingen), Andy Kaufman Is Me (Clay Tweel), Barking in the Dark (Marie Losier), Bobò (Pippo Delbono), Paul (Denis Côté), Toni, My Father (Anna Negri), Megadoc (Mike Figgis), and Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror (Linus O’Brien). The section also pays tribute to the late #Robert Wilson# with screenings of Stations, Video 50, and Robert Wilson & the CIVIL warS (Howard Brookner).
The «From the Earth to the Moon» sidebar features Pescadores de Bubaque (Pedro Florêncio), Contemplation Deadlock Attempt (Welket Bungué), Aurora (João Vieira Torres), Tales of the Wounded Land (Abbas Fahdel), Angela’s Diaries. Two Filmmakers: Chapter Three (Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi), and Tôsô (Masao Adachi).
Doclisboa and Cinemateca Portuguesa will present a retrospective of #William Greaves# (1926–2014), showcasing the African-American pioneer’s work across roles as actor, director, producer, and editor.
The competitive «Green Years» section spotlights emerging talent, while «Nebulae,» the festival’s industry platform, returns with seminars, labs, project pitches, and networking for independent producers. The education strand «abcDoc,» in partnership with Apordoc, offers activities for children and school audiences, promoting film literacy through documentary.
Find more information on the full Doclisboa 2025 programme – HERE
