Paulo Carneiro

Directing

Paulo Carneiro

Born in Lisbon, 1990 and raised in Pontinha (suburbs). Graduated in Sound and Image from ESAD.CR and master from the National Film School (ESTC) and HEAD – Genève. In 2018 directs his first film BOSTOFRIO, OÙ LE CIEL REJOINT LA TERRE, multi-awarded and shown in more than 40 international film festivals around the world. In 2019 it was acclaimed by the critic's as “top 10 films of the year” for Jornal Público. BOSTOFRIO reached more than a million spectators globally (festivals, TVs, cinemas, streaming, etc). PÉRIPHÉRIQUE NORD premieres at Visions du Réel ’22. SAVANNA AND THE MOUNTAIN premieres at Directors’ Fortnight.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Périphérique Nord poster
6.0

A car aficionado, filmmaker Paulo Carneiro travels 2000 kilometres to meet car enthusiasts of the Portuguese community in exile. In a pop and urban universe, Périphérique Nord explores this shared passion and the freedom it provides for these exiled persons who seem to finally find (once again) a territory of their own.

Périphérique Nord

2022

Périphérique Nord poster
6.0

A car aficionado, filmmaker Paulo Carneiro travels 2000 kilometres to meet car enthusiasts of the Portuguese community in exile. In a pop and urban universe, Périphérique Nord explores this shared passion and the freedom it provides for these exiled persons who seem to finally find (once again) a territory of their own.

Périphérique Nord

2022

Gemstones poster
8.0

Machado, a Colombian living in France, is hired to return to his hometown of Medellín and steal an emerald. During the risky execution of his plan, he becomes entangled in a series of events that lead him to reconsider the ultimate goal of his mission.

Gemstones

2026

Gemstones poster
8.0

Machado, a Colombian living in France, is hired to return to his hometown of Medellín and steal an emerald. During the risky execution of his plan, he becomes entangled in a series of events that lead him to reconsider the ultimate goal of his mission.

Gemstones

2026

Sabura poster
NR

In this love story, a young couple faces an uncertain future between Africa and Europe. When they reunite in Lisbon, sharing a house with other immigrants, farness and closeness will test their relationship.

Sabura

2025

Tropical Fractals poster
NR

On an interstellar journey, a group of scientists studies the last living vestiges of Earth. The artificial intelligence, Museo, becomes a portal to the crew’s diaries and a fragmented archive of humanity. On Earth, the one believed to be the last of the humans traverses a ruined planet that is slowly recovering, little by little, from the apocalypse it endured.

Tropical Fractals

2026

Bostofrio poster
5.3

In a remote village called Bostofrio, a young filmmaker breaks the law of silence in order to unearth the story of his grandfather. A series of awkward and funny interviews that reveal the secrets and half truths that are the fabric of rural Portugal.

Bostofrio

2018

Bostofrio poster
5.3

In a remote village called Bostofrio, a young filmmaker breaks the law of silence in order to unearth the story of his grandfather. A series of awkward and funny interviews that reveal the secrets and half truths that are the fabric of rural Portugal.

Bostofrio

2018

Bostofrio poster
5.3

In a remote village called Bostofrio, a young filmmaker breaks the law of silence in order to unearth the story of his grandfather. A series of awkward and funny interviews that reveal the secrets and half truths that are the fabric of rural Portugal.

Bostofrio

2018

No artwork available
NR

Letter from a son to a mother.

Dear Mother

2016

Savanna and the Mountain poster
6.3

The community of Covas do Barroso, in northern Portugal, discovers that the British company Savannah Resources plans to build the largest open-pit lithium mine in Europe just few meters from their homes. Confronted by this imminent threat, the People decide to organize themselves and expel the company from their lands.

Savanna and the Mountain

2025

Savanna and the Mountain poster
6.3

The community of Covas do Barroso, in northern Portugal, discovers that the British company Savannah Resources plans to build the largest open-pit lithium mine in Europe just few meters from their homes. Confronted by this imminent threat, the People decide to organize themselves and expel the company from their lands.

Savanna and the Mountain

2025

Savanna and the Mountain poster
6.3

The community of Covas do Barroso, in northern Portugal, discovers that the British company Savannah Resources plans to build the largest open-pit lithium mine in Europe just few meters from their homes. Confronted by this imminent threat, the People decide to organize themselves and expel the company from their lands.

Savanna and the Mountain

2025

On Plains of Larger River & Woodlands poster
NR

Steeped in the isolation of suburban Tasmania, Imogen and Audrey reflect on their lives, families and dreams between puffs on bongs, vapes and cigs. Dark clouds approach in the conversation and landscape as local wildlife looks on indifferently. Beyond the drugs and arcades, what possible routes of escape remain?

On Plains of Larger River & Woodlands

2024

Filme Pin poster
NR

Between light, metal and silver, a collection of solidarity pins turns into an archive of another scale: spectres of exile and international struggle against Portugal’s fascist and colonial regime.

Filme Pin

2026

No artwork available
NR

In mid-summer 2011, Paulo Carneiro and set out as assistant director for a film crew working on a project on the west African coast. There he unexpectedly ended up shooting his own film, a documentary report about a sinking ship near the coast of Guinea-Bissau on which he was a passenger. The digital camera records the growing panic on the ship after it has gotten stuck in the ocean in an oppressive nighttime atmosphere. In shaky interview footage, we see passengers move from an initial apathy to nervous anxiety, and from there fluidly to a fear for their lives. The growing tension on board is reflected in the film's ever quickening tempo.

Water to Tabato

2014

No artwork available
NR

In mid-summer 2011, Paulo Carneiro and set out as assistant director for a film crew working on a project on the west African coast. There he unexpectedly ended up shooting his own film, a documentary report about a sinking ship near the coast of Guinea-Bissau on which he was a passenger. The digital camera records the growing panic on the ship after it has gotten stuck in the ocean in an oppressive nighttime atmosphere. In shaky interview footage, we see passengers move from an initial apathy to nervous anxiety, and from there fluidly to a fear for their lives. The growing tension on board is reflected in the film's ever quickening tempo.

Water to Tabato

2014

Death of a Mountain poster
NR

From a human point of view, a mountain is a barrier and a place of passage. Mountains have always been natural frontiers between territories. Nuno Escudeiro collected stories in Briançon, in the French High Alps, and in the Susa Valley, in the western part of Piedmont, and to these he added home movies from the Superottimisti Archivo di Film di Famiglia.

Death of a Mountain

2023

No artwork available
NR

Chã das Caldeiras, at an altitude of 2000m, is a town within the caldera of the Fogo volcano, in Cape Verde. In the last eruption in 2015, the town was almost completely destroyed.

My Land My Strength

No artwork available
NR

Chã das Caldeiras, at an altitude of 2000m, is a town within the caldera of the Fogo volcano, in Cape Verde. In the last eruption in 2015, the town was almost completely destroyed.

My Land My Strength