The long read · Portuguese cinema
The Resilience of Portuguese Cinema and Its Global Stars
Portugal’s cinema is small, poetic and fiercely original, admired by film lovers around the world. It is the country of Manoel de Oliveira, who was still making films after his hundredth birthday, and of a new generation winning at Cannes and Locarno. Here is the story, and where to watch in Lisbon.
Updated October 2026
Manoel de Oliveira and the classic years
Portuguese cinema has one towering figure: Manoel de Oliveira, born in Porto in 1908, who made his first film in the silent era, his much-loved Aniki-Bóbó in 1942, and was still directing after his hundredth birthday. Cannes gave him an honorary Palme d’Or in 2008, and he died in 2015 at the age of 106.
Around him grew a distinctive art cinema, slow, literary and beautiful, carried on by directors such as João César Monteiro and, later, Pedro Costa.
The new Portuguese cinema
Since the 2000s Portuguese film has won some of the great festival prizes. Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela, set on the edge of Lisbon, won the Golden Leopard at Locarno in 2019, and Miguel Gomes, whose Tabu (2012) charmed audiences around the world, won best director at Cannes in 2024 for Grand Tour.
Must-watch films
To understand Portuguese cinema, start with these.
- Aniki-Bóbó (1942): Manoel de Oliveira’s story of children in Porto, a forerunner of Neorealism.
- Tabu (2012): Miguel Gomes’s black-and-white tale of love in Lisbon and Africa.
- Vitalina Varela (2019): Pedro Costa’s luminous, dark portrait of a woman arriving in Lisbon, winner of the Golden Leopard.
- Grand Tour (2024): Miguel Gomes’s journey across Asia, best director at Cannes.
The stars
Portuguese actors have found fame far beyond Lisbon.
- Maria de Medeiros: winner of the Volpi Cup in Venice in 1994 and Bruce Willis’s girlfriend in Pulp Fiction.
- Joaquim de Almeida: one of Hollywood’s favourite screen villains, from Desperado to Fast Five.
Hidden on the silver screen: international productions filmed in Portugal
Portugal’s light and coast have long drawn foreign film-makers. The most famous example is the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), whose opening scenes were shot on Guincho beach and in Estoril, west of Lisbon.
Where to watch in Lisbon
In Lisbon, the Cinemateca Portuguesa on the Rua Barata Salgueiro shows the classics of Portuguese and world cinema, and the grand Cinema São Jorge on the Avenida da Liberdade hosts the city’s festivals, among them Doclisboa, the documentary festival, every autumn.
Our advice: catch a Portuguese classic with English subtitles at the Cinemateca, then have a drink on its terrace.
Cinemateca Portuguesa Cinema São Jorge Doclisboa
Questions and answers
Who is the most famous Portuguese film director?
Manoel de Oliveira (1908–2015), who made films for more than eighty years and received an honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2008.
Join the conversation
Which Portuguese film or star do you love most? Share your favourite scenes and the films we should add.
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Sources: the Festival de Cannes, the Locarno Film Festival, La Biennale di Venezia and the Cinemateca Portuguesa, checked on 5 November 2026. We found no official trailers online for these films, so none are embedded.