Next that morning, Fernando Galrito, Portuguese director and lecturer, presented a series of Portuguese, award winning short films.

I noticed that they generally offered sensitive, mature storylines and issues and thoughtful approaches and I liked that. That’s probably because this view of life matches my character better than the comical, anecdotal visions raised by other productions. It does not mean at all that I don’t like these lighter stories, but I admit I usually tend to approach my own creation processes with a reflective attitude.

The ones I liked most were “Story of the Cat and the Moon”, by Pedro Serrazina, “Tragic story with a happy ending”, by Regina Pessoa, and Nuno Amorim’s “All steps”.

I already knew the two first, and I like their black and white 2D animation style. They both play with moving perspectives and cameras following the characters, which is some of the most difficult things to achieve in traditional animation, from my point of view. But they do that so smoothly that you feel there are actually cameras tracking the movement.

Their drawing styles are quite different. The story of the cat and the moon doesn’t have textures, though it uses light and shadow a lot and this camera movement to bring the objects and characters to life. The games of contrast between the black and the white figures create beautiful images as seducing as the off voice that poetically recounts the cat’s feelings in the first person.

Regina’s story, on the contrary, has texture and detail in its drawings, which look like engravings. She works the creases and volumes with black and white gradations and lines. It also has more characters and their designs are very particular.

What I liked about Nuno Amorim’s short was that is showed the making of the drawings, from first several quick black lines to the addition of some colour. Thus he represents how sketches from a past summer turn into a film of memories and nostalgia for the presence of the other. I’d like to see it again, but I haven’t been able to find it on the Internet, and the same happens with “Candide”, by Zepe (José Pedro Cavalheiro). I remember its original obese designs and how the character of the woman was always presented in oppressive short close-ups that never allowed to see her face.













To close this post about Portuguese animation, I want to leave a suggestion. If you haven’t seen yet José Miguel Ribeiro’s “A suspeita”, now is the time to do it. Click here!