Vítor Gonçalves

Biography

Vítor Gonçalves is a Portuguese filmmaker, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He is considered to be part of The School of Reis film family. Vítor was born in 1951 to Vasco Gonçalves in the Portuguese islands of Azores. After graduating in civil engineering, he became a filmmaker. In 1979, he graduated from the Escola de Cinema do Conservatório Nacional (now Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema) with a degree in filmmaking, where he was a student of António Reis. Vítor has been teaching at the Cinema School since 1982 where he currently runs the directing course. In 1984, Gonçalves, with José Bogalheiro, founded the independent production company Trópico Filmes, a film production company which had considerable influence in Portuguese cinema during the 80s, and where he made his first film as a director in 1986 - A GIRL IN SUMMER . The film had its world premiere at the 1987 Rotterdam Film Festival and was selected that same year for the Berlin Film Festival. It was also the first work in cinema of future director Pedro Costa, as an assistant director. In 1989, Vítor Gonçalves produced Costa's debut film, Blood. Gonçalves spent the following years producing the 1992 film A Nuvem, directed by Ana Luísa Guimarães. THE INVISIBLE LIFE is his most recent feature film. It had its world premiere in the International Competition of Rome Film Festival 2013, and subsequently screened in selection for the Rotterdam Film Festival 2014. The UK premiere was at the Edinburgh Film Festival in June 2014. Lives in Lisbon where he is preparing his new film project.