João Alves
Directing
Biography
João Alves has worked in animation since 2006, beginning as an animator on Revolta dos Pastéis de Nata and Ilha das Cores. In 2010, he directed Bats in the Belfry, which premiered at MOTELx and won Best Portuguese Horror Short Film. He later studied animation at the University of Texas at Austin and co-directed a trailer for The Extraordinary Adventures of Dog Mendonça and Pizzaboy II. A member of COLA since 2017, João has written the feature script Mindscape, co-directed the feature O Natal do Bruno Aleixo and is developing the feature film adaptation of O Baile (graphic novel).
Known For
A group of soldiers, lost in the woods, must face the traumas of their past and the terrifying forces stalking them.
The Hunt
A journey through 40 years of life of the most important Film Festival in Portugal, through the voice of its President and Director, Mário Dorminsky and Beatriz Pacheco Pereira. Born at a coffee shop table in the "Invicta" - Porto City, with a subsidy of 15 "contos" (75EUR), since 1981 it hasn't stopped bringing us cinema, and given its weight and peculiarity, The project developed and soon became a reality, with the screening of several sessions a day, the realization of retrospectives and, also, in parallel, the promotion of concerts and art exhibitions. It is considered the biggest film festival in Portugal, and internationally recognized as one of the most important worldwide, and is now entering its 40th edition.
40 Years of Fantasporto
Bruno Aleixo has an accident the week before Christmas, leaving him in a coma. However, doctors are unanimous: they do not give a physiological reason for this comatose state, so they conclude that it is of a psychological nature. Bruno Aleixo, an assumed hater of the Christmas spirit, simply refuses to wake up. Using the recognized archetype of Charles Dickens' Christmas Tale, sleeping Bruno Aleixo relives, in dreams, several traumatic Christmases of the past, present and future.
O Natal do Bruno Aleixo
Deadeye Jack tries to resume a botched heist, by blasting into a Spanish Mission. But in there he finds the owners of the money he's after have fallen pray to vampires disguised as missionaries. Jack kills the vampires, and saves one of the owners of the money, to help him carry the money bags. When he finally goes for the money, a sand worm eats the horse, the woman and the money, leaving Jack really upset.