Nuno Barros, Lipor

A Biology graduate from Porto University, he has dedicated most of his working life to training and communication in the areas of the Environment and Sustainability. He has worked at LIPOR (Municipalities Association for Sustainable Waste Management of Greater Porto) for several years, and is also active the areas of Social Responsibility and Corporate Sustainability, having carried out projects in a range of areas, namely Agenda 21 and SA8000. He currently is part of the Marketing and Brand Department, where he is one of a team in charge of the management of internal and external marketing material, and where he continues to carry out Social Responsibility projects. He is especially keen on the written word and images, and their importance in breaking down complex topics in communication.

Miguel Soares

Miguel Soares is a journalist, director and author of radio programmes and podcasts. He won the Gazeta Journalism Award 2019-2020, and the Podes Award for the best radio podcast in 2020. He is the editor and newsreader of afternoon news programmes for Antena 1. He presents the weekly programmes Old Friends and Verdes Anos on the publicly owned radio station. He wrote in the press regularly for several years about music and cinema, the topic of his graduation monograph. He has a course in Advanced Photography from the Image Workshop and a master’s degree in Documental Cinema from the IPCI.

Cristina Mota

Cristina Mota has been a founder and board member of the Cineclube da Feira since 1995 and has been a producer at the Luso-Brazilian Festival since its inception. In 2012 she co-founded the distribution company Nitrato Filmes and since then she has been involved in various film distribution and exhibition projects and participated in the world's most important film markets and festivals. In 2017, with her partner Américo Santos, they reopened Cinema Trindade and since then she has been managing this historic cinema in Porto.

Isabel Ruth

Portuguese actress born in 1940. Although she started her career as a classical dancer, she became one of the icons of Portugal’s “New Cinema”. Her most celebrated role was as Ilda in Os Verdes Anos (1963), a flagship film of a new wave in Portuguese cinema. She became one of the most in-demand actresses. She worked with Paulo Rocha in Mudar de Vida (1967) and O Rio do Ouro (1998), João Botelho in Conversa Acabada (1982) and Tempos Difíceis (1988), and Fernando Lopes in O Delfim (2002). She was a preferred actress of Manoel de Oliveira, who directed her in Vale Abraão (1993), A Caixa (1996), Viagem ao Princípio do Mundo (1997), Inquietude (1998), Je Rentre à la Maison (2001) and O Princípio da Incerteza (2002). In theatre, her leading roles were in O Impostor-Geral (1965), where she worked alongside Raul Solnado and Armando Cortez, Braço Direito Precisa-se (1966), by Manuel Pressler, also starring Barroso Lopes and Francisco Nicholson, and Desculpe Se o Matei (1966), again alongside Raul Solnado.

Caterina Cucinotta

Caterina Cucinotta is an invited assistant professor at the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid (Spain). After obtaining a PhD in Communication Sciences, Cinema and Television at the NOVA University, between 2017 and 2023 she carried out a post-PhD project entitled “Costumes and spatial texture in Portuguese cinema in the last 50 years” at the Institute of Contemporary History. Part of the management of the Association of Moving Images Researchers (AIM), she supervises the Cinema and Materiality Working Group. She is the author of the books “Viagem ao cinema através do seu vestuário” (Journey through cinema through its clothing) (2018) and “Figurinos e figurinistas no cinema em Portugal. Conceitos para novas materialidades” (Costume and costume designers in Portuguese cinema. Concepts and new materiality) (2023) and a member of the FCT exploratory project “Speculum, filmar-se e ver-se ao espelho” (Speculate, film and look in the mirror). She works on the history of cinema and audiovisual communication through Costume Studies, mise-en-scène, female workshops, techniques and art.

Daniel Pinheiro

Portuguese photographer and director specialised in Natural History. Master’s degree in Wildlife Documentary Production at Salford University, England. Graduate in Communication and Multimedia Design at Coimbra Polytechnic Institute. In 2014 he founded Wildstep Productions, an independent production company specialised in History, Nature and Environmental content. The mission of the company is to cater for mass audiences by connecting Art, Science and Conservation. Its productions have been broadcast on Portuguese and international television channels (SIC, RTP1, TVE, Wild Planet, HRT and Planete+) and have won awards at several film festivals. Its productions have broken viewership records for Natural History programmes in Portugal. He has taken part as a cameraman and sound engineer in several productions in Spain, Peru, Brazil and Argentina. His work as a nature photographer has been published in the National Geographic Magazine and he has won awards in several international contests. He is an invited speaker in conferences, schools and universities.

Afonso Mendonça

Afonso Mendonça is a 24-year-old from Lisbon who has lived in the municipality of Seia, in Póvoa Velha, since 2008. He works in a family-run rural tourism business and has a degree in Tourism and Leisure from the Escola Superior de Turismo e Hotelaria of the Instituto Politécnico da Guarda. He is passionate about nature and the Serra da Estrela mountain range. He has been president of the Seia Mountaineering Club for two years. He travels whenever possible in vintage cars and has visited 38 countries.

Francisca Lavrador de Sousa

Francisca Lavrador de Sousa is 17 years old and was born and raised in Seia. He is currently attending the 12th school year of the Languages and Humanities Course, simultaneously supplementing his education at the Music Conservatory, where he is finishing the 8th grade in violin. He has been interested in environmental causes since a young age, partly through coming into contact with CineEco for as long as he can remember.

Francisco Mendonça

Born in Seia, he is currently attending a Law degree at Lisbon University. He is taking part in this festival for the first time given that the seventh art is one of his great interests.

Madalena Fonseca

She is 22 years old, from Guarda and lives in Fornos de Algodres. She graduated in Artistic Studies at Coimbra University, where she studied film, theatre and music. She is currently doing a professional training course in the Mountain Villages, where she brings the world of arts to the villages and their residents. She created the Fornos de Algodres Amateur Theatre, where she multitasks as a stage director, actress and everything involved in putting on shows. She has the 6th grade in the music conservatory and has taken part in several cinematographic projects.

Maria Inês Mota Borges

Maria Inês Mota Borges is 16 years old and is a proud Seia native. She is currently studying the 12th school year at Seia secondary school, in the area of Sciences and Technologies, where she is the President of the Students Association. In her free time, she is a volunteer at the Seia Youth delegation and the Portuguese Red Cross. She has always liked sport and has played for SenaClube female volleyball team. Whenever she can, she likes to go to the cinema and support environmental causes, having taken part in reforestation campaigns in Serra da Estrela.

Rodrigo Oliveira

Rodrigo Oliveira is 17 years old and attends the Sciences and Technologies course at Seia Secondary School. The quality and effort he puts into his academic work has earned him performance merit diplomas at school. Coming into close contact with the nature surrounding Serra da Estrela opened his eyes from an early age to the importance of environmental issues, which he is increasingly immersed in.