Oscar-winning Portuguese filmmaker to attend Lusophone fest

Oscar-winning Portuguese filmmaker Fernando Vendrell will attend the seventh Lusophone film festival that starts here on Friday, the organisers said on Thursday.

The five-day festival will open with Vendrell's third film "Skin".

The event will also feature other films like "The Refugee" (Director - Rui Cardoso), "Cats Don't Have Vertigo" (Director - Antonio Pedro Vasconcelos), "Night" (Director - Aya Koretzky and Rodrigo Barros), "The Pilot Boat" (Director - Francisco Manso), "The Lovebirds" (Director - Bruno de Almeida), "What's New About Love?" (Director - Hugo Alves, Monica Santana Baptista, Hugo Martins, Tiago Nunes, Patricia Raposo, Rui Alexandre Santos) and "The Consul of Bordeaux" (Director - Francisco Manso and Joao Correia).

The Lusophone film festival is organised annually during Semana Da Cultura Indo-Portuguesa (Goa), as part of a series of events which showcases and celebrates Goa's unique Portuguese influenced culture.

"Cinema is an effective way to build a bond between two cultures. The Lusophone film festival does just that between the cultures of Goa and Portugal, which already have a shared heritage," said co-organiser Jose Elmano Coelho Pereira.

Goa was a Portuguese colony for 451 years before it was liberated by the Indian armed forces in 1961.