The 23rd Open Air Film Festival, organized by the Cineclube de Tavira in July and August, brought together around 3 thousand spectators, in the Cloisters of the Convento do Carmo, in Tavira.
According to Candela Varas, programmer at Mostra, the event was, once again, a true success.
«The Exhibition went extremely well: we had more spectators than in recent years. That is, we managed to recover the numbers we had before the pandemic. We also noticed an increase in the young audience, which makes us very happy. The youth's interest in the Exhibition was notorious even among the middle age of the volunteers, who joined us to help organize it», says the person in charge of programming.
With regard to the nights with the greatest influx of public, the highlight goes to the films “As Beasts”, which opened the exhibition, “Ennio, the Maestro”, “Triângulo da Tristeza”, “Cesária Évora” and “Aftersun”.
Another of the strongest nights, which attracted more people to Convento do Carmo, was the presentation of a classic of national cinema. This year, the Cineclube de Tavira bet on creation, with the premiere of a Cinema Expandido play, based on the film 'Os Verdes Anos', by Paulo Rocha.
With texts and performance by Bruno Humberto and Candela Varas and music by harpsichordist Joana Bagulho, the initiative was supported by the cultural program 'Viva a Primavera' (promoted by the Municipality of Tavira) and the Regional Directorate of Culture of the Algarve.
The projection of the work “Wolf and Dog”, by Cláudia Varejão, was also very popular.
That night, the director was scheduled to present her film in person, but an unforeseen event prevented her from going to Tavira. However, Cláudia Varejão made a point of sending everyone a message, praising the Mostra's program and highlighting «the important role of the Cineclube de Tavira in the decentralization of cinema».
«Every night was special and I think we ended in the best way, with the documentary on the life of Ennio Morricone. We were sold out, there wasn't even a chair free! People were happy and many of them wanted to congratulate us. This affection and recognition from the public left us highly motivated to prepare the next edition», says Candela Varas.
At the end of each session, spectators were also able to classify, according to their preference and on a scale of 1 to 5, the films watched. Taking into account the public vote, the cinema produced in the Iberian Peninsula received the highest score. The animated feature film 'Nayola', by Portuguese filmmaker José Miguel Ribeiro, and '20.000 Species of Bees', by Basque director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, were the films with the highest score, along with the two documentaries that made up the program .
For the 2024 edition, Cineclube de Tavira promises to maintain the quality of the films and invest even more in the presence of special guests, especially directors and actors, who can talk about the films in the first person and discuss interesting topics with the public.
Another bet will be to ensure the dynamism of the Bar da Mostra, which this year proved to be a fundamental piece in the animation of movie nights, always with menus specially designed for certain days, providing a journey through the cuisine of various parts of the world.
The 23rd Open Air Film Festival was supported by the Municipality of Tavira, the Regional Directorate of Culture of the Algarve and several private companies.
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