Presentation

MONSTRA festival is an encounter that is established in the bond between the big screen and the viewers. It is established in the shared experience and emotions, as well as in our reactions to the senses, motion, colours and sounds coming from the screen, echoing in each and every one of us.

Returning to the big theatre room with a program full of animation films and premieres: 

A comprehensive retrospective celebrating the excellence of Belgian animation, where the work of the master Raoul Servais stands out, among many others;

Six film competitions full of art and animation directed by amazing artists from over a hundred countries

And then we have MONSTRINHA: The animated little girl who every year takes the most beautiful animation films to thousands of children, young people and families. Films where colour, mouvement, joy and life provide the magical art of imagination and animation, to their eyes and hearts;

Both live and online, we will have masterclasses, workshops, talks with some of the best specialists in the art of the moving picture, music, directing and creating.

The exhibitions will take us to the backstage of some of the best works by outstanding artists. We will be able to see live the “actors” cast of a great stop motion film (to be announced soon), as well as the original designs Raimund Krumme’s films, among other directors and films. From Portuguese artists, we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of one of the biggest Portuguese animated series  “Ema & Gui”, and also the great exhibition of original art behind Regina Pessoa’s film “Uncle Thomas, or the accounting of days” which has premiered and was awarded at MONSTRA in 2020;

These, and so many more, are the lines, and the waves, the canvases, the moments, from where yet another edition of MONSTRA flows. A MONSTRA who lives in the Avenue bearing the name of art, of creativity, of Liberty.

At the bottom of this Avenue there is a river of ever-living waters: a Tagus, a source of inspiration. This MONSTRA is also an inspiration born from that river, living in the sea waves where the images, the movements, and the art of movement, of taking chances, but also of anger, of struggle, of love and hope, endure and resist.

We always come back stronger. Each passing year, each day, we need to keep up the rhythm because culture and art are forever resilient.

The waves that brought us here, from that river and from that sea, still carry the scent of adventure, of hope, life, art, and so much animation cinema, that we want, and we will, share with everyone.

Fernando Galrito |  MONSTRA Artistic Director