Four Portuguese co-productions feature in the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), which runs from April 1 to 12, the organisation announced.
According to the HKIFF programme released on Tuesday, the World Cinema section includes “O Riso e a Faca,” the second fiction feature by Portuguese director Pedro Pinho.
The co-production between Portugal, Brazil, France and Romania was nominated for the Goya Awards 2026 — Spain’s film prizes — for best European film, and for the 2026 European Film Academy awards.
The film, starring Sérgio Coragem, Cléo Diára and Jonathan Guilherme, premiered in May at the Cannes Film Festival, where the lead actress won a performance prize in the “Un Certain Regard” section.
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In the Masters and Auteurs section, Filipino director Lav Diaz’s “Magellan” will be screened — a film about Portuguese navigator Fernão de Magalhães and the Philippines’ candidate for an Oscar nomination for best international feature film.
The film stars Mexican actor Gael García Bernal as the navigator (1480-1521), who began the circumnavigation voyage and died in the Philippines. The Portuguese co-production by Rosa Filmes also features actress Ângela Machado as Beatriz Barbosa, the navigator’s wife, alongside actors Tomás Alves, Rafael Morais, Ivo Arroja and Valdemar Santos.
Also in the same section is German director Werner Herzog’s latest documentary “Ghost Elephants,” filmed in Angola and premiered at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival.
Among the documentaries screening at HKIFF is “Amílcar,” the result of five years of work on African independence leader Amílcar Cabral by Spanish director Miguel Eek. The co-production between Spain, France, Switzerland, Cape Verde and Portugal — by Lx Films, with cinematography by João Pedro Plácido — is nominated for best Ibero-American documentary at the Guadalajara Film Festival in April.
In the HKIFF’s Kaleidoscope — Poetry in Motion section, Gabriel Azorín’s “Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes” will screen, a Spanish production co-produced with Portuguese company Primeira Idade.
The festival will also present several 4K-restored classic films, including “Aniki-Bóbó” (1942), the first film by Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira (1908-2015). The HKIFF’s Firebirds short film competition includes “Samba Infinito,” a Brazil-France co-production directed by Leonardo Martinelli.
