7th Edition – 2025

Consolidation and international strengthening

Introduction

The 7th edition of the Moinho Cine Fest was the last one promoted by the Union of the Parishes of Custóias, Leça do Balio and Guifões, preceding its dissolution and administrative separation. The festival presented four screening sessions, held on March 28 and 29 and April 11 and 12, reaffirming its commitment to short‑duration cinema.

A total of 425 submissions from 54 countries were received, from which 50 films representing 20 countries were selected, highlighting the international diversity that defines the festival. The competitive categories included nano‑film, micro‑film and short film, with the latter extended up to 60 minutes to incorporate medium‑length films.

This edition also marked the first time the Moinho Cine Fest was awarded the EFFE Label, a distinction from the European Festivals Association that recognises the festival’s artistic quality and cultural impact.

Award Winners

Best Film: Uma Mãe Vai à Praia — Pedro Hasrouny (Portugal)
Best Portuguese Film: Uma Mãe Vai à Praia — Pedro Hasrouny (Portugal)
Best International Film: The Steak — Kiarash Dadgar (Iran)
Best Short Film: Uma Mãe Vai à Praia — Pedro Hasrouny (Portugal)
Best Micro Film: A Culpa é da Água — Ana Leonor Guia, Marta Quintanito Roberto, Rúben Pinto and Tiago Magalhães (Portugal)
Best Nano Film: KINOKARENINA — Andrii Makarchenko (Ukraine)
Best Animation: T‑ZERO — Vicente Nirō (Portugal)
Best Documentary: 1/4 de Glória — Rafaela Gomes (Portugal)
Best Fiction: The Steak — Kiarash Dadgar (Iran)
Best Experimental Film: O Fecho de uma Refinaria — Vasco Monteiro (Portugal)
Honourable Mention: The Steak — Kiarash Dadgar (Iran)
Honourable Mention: Uma Mãe Vai à Praia — Pedro Hasrouny (Portugal)

Official Selection

The Official Selection brought together films of multiple genres and origins, reflecting the diversity that marked this seventh edition.

Short Films

1/4 de Glória — Rafaela Gomes (Portugal)
A Summer’s End Poem — Lam Can‑zhao (China)
A vista do avião — Daniele Grosso (Portugal)
Agudela — Maria José Mendes (Portugal)
Ana Morphose — João Rodrigues (Portugal)
Défilement — Francisca Miranda (Portugal)
It’s You — Mónica Moura (Portugal)
Light of Light — Neritan Zinxhiria (Greece)
Memórias de uma casa vazia — Bruno Carnide (Portugal)
Monte Clérigo — Luís Campos (Portugal)
Nena — Xosé A. Touriñán and Jairo Iglesias (Spain)
O Fecho de uma Refinaria — Vasco Monteiro (Portugal)
O Fim era Apenas o Início — António Aleixo (Portugal)
Ribeiro de Baixo, Cabo do Mundo — Rodrigo Queirós, Nuno Mendonça and Vítor Covelo (Portugal)
Rose Rash — Thanut Rujitanont (Thailand)
Sara — Ariana Andrade Castro (Peru)
Surf Church: Além da Costa — Naomi Yoder (United States of America)
The Coat — Alexander Alexandrovich Litskevich (Russia)
The Currency – Sensing 1 Agbogbloshie — Elom 20ce, Musquiqui Chihying and Gregor Kasper (Germany)
The Looking Game — Ann Upton (Ireland)
The Steak — Kiarash Dadgar (Iran)
Things in the Psyche of an Awake Dreamer — Remy Ryumugabe (Rwanda)
T‑ZERO — Vicente Nirō (Portugal)
Uma Mãe Vai à Praia — Pedro Hasrouny (Portugal)
Women of Bissau — Juan García de la Fuente and Dave Jackson (Spain)

Micro Films

[Portrait(s)] — Luís Miranda (Portugal)
A A Mamá — Juan Escribano Tamayo (Spain)
A Bem da Nação — Escola Básica dos 2.º e 3.º Ciclos do Caniço (Portugal)
A Culpa é da Água — Ana Leonor Guia, Marta Quintanito Roberto, Rúben Pinto and Tiago Magalhães (Portugal)
A pleasure — Sonia Estevez (Spain)
Adeus — Beatriz Silva (Portugal)
Boxed — Raquel Morim (Portugal)
Doors — José Assembleia (Portugal)
Eleanor — Elise Middlemiss (Australia)
Losing My Body — Žiga Ciber (Slovenia)
Mirror — Nuno Serrão (Portugal)
-Oh — Clara Trevisan, Juan Maria León, Nan‑Tung Lin and Tata Managadze (Portugal)
PLENIR — Daša Grgič (Italy)
Respira — Ana Li (Brazil)
Rosetta’s Lucky House — Mary Rose McClain and Emma Dollery (United States of America)
Summertime Sadness — Myriam González Sánchez (Spain)
VENI VIDI NON VICI — Leonor Calaça (Portugal)

Nano Films

Endless Lift‑Off — Pierre Yves Clouin (France)
Kinokarenina — Andrii Makarchenko (Ukraine)
My Mom Increasingly Unable to Understand How to Use a Phone Haiku — Finn Harvor (South Korea)
Overcome — Bil Richardson (United States of America)
Sonho de Vida — Renata Monteiro (Brazil)
The Trails of Life #1 — Chris Furby (United Kingdom)

Out of Competition

13H — José Paulo Santos (Portugal)

Curta Canedo

Sarita Brega e Chique – Vida e Arte de um Ator Transformista — Carmelita Gomes (Brazil)

Jury

José Paulo Santos

Born in Coimbra in 1979, he lives in Matosinhos and has been dedicated to independent cinema since 2013. He directed films such as …além da sala de espera, included in the National Cinema Plan, Circunstâncias, Observador, 13H, 1965 | Panreal, um edifício de Nadir Afonso and Zé Luís, um escultor de vozes. His works have been screened at 289 international festivals, receiving 280 awards. He is a lecturer and coordinator of the Multimedia course at Escola Artística da Árvore and a PhD candidate at the University of Vigo.

Lídia Muñoz

Portuguese actress trained at the Escola Profissional de Teatro de Cascais and the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema. She has worked with directors such as João Mota, Carlos Avilez, João Lourenço, António Simão, Sérgio Moura Afonso, Marta Dias and Diogo Infante. She has appeared in more than thirty productions, including O Comboio da Madrugada, where she performed alongside her grandmother Eunice Muñoz, and A Margem do Tempo. In cinema, she participated in films such as Eunice ou Carta a uma Jovem Actriz and O Misterioso Caso de Lázaro Lafourcade.

Tiago Durão

Portuguese filmmaker who won the Sophia Award from the Portuguese Academy of Cinema in 2022 with Eunice ou Carta a uma Jovem Atriz. He lived in New York between 2016 and 2019, where he produced and directed the feature film Alice Nova Iorque e Outras Histórias, awarded at several international festivals. He directed Erros Meus, Má Fortuna, Amor Ardente, premiered on RTP2, and O Misterioso Caso de Lázaro Lafourcade, celebrating the 80-year career of Ruy de Carvalho. He is currently in pre-production for a new documentary.