{{short description|Portuguese film director}} {{Other people}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Pedro Costa | image = Pedro Costa (2020).jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=y|1958|12|30}} | birth_place = Lisbon, Portugal | death_date = | death_place = | alma_mater = University of Lisbon<br>Lisbon Theatre and Film School | occupation = Film director, screenwriter | years_active = 1984–present | known_for = | spouse = | website = | footnotes = | children = }} '''Pedro Costa''' (born 30 December 1958)<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.jn.pt/PaginaInicial/Interior.aspx?content_id=967109|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305011124/http://www.jn.pt/PaginaInicial/Interior.aspx?content_id=967109|title=Prémios Gulbenkian: Realizador Pedro Costa distinguido na categoria Arte|date=11 July 2008|newspaper=Jornal de Notícias|access-date=18 December 2015|quote=Pedro Costa nasceu em Lisboa, 30 de dezembro de 1958.|language=pt|archive-date=5 March 2016}}</ref> is a Portuguese film director. He is best known for his sequence of films set in the Greater Lisbon Area,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Letters from Fontainhas: Three Films by Pedro Costa |url=https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/704-letters-from-fontainhas-three-films-by-pedro-costa |access-date=2022-10-15 |website=The Criterion Collection |language=en}}</ref> focusing on the lives of the impoverished residents of a slum in the Fontainhas neighbourhood, in Amadora.
==Biography== After completing a degree in history from the University of Lisbon, Costa worked as an assistant for Jorge Silva Melo, Vítor Gonçalves and João Botelho.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pedro Costa {{!}} IFFR |url=https://iffr.com/en/persons/pedro-costa |access-date=2022-10-15 |website=iffr.com |archive-date=2023-05-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528021113/https://iffr.com/en/persons/pedro-costa |url-status=dead }}</ref> He released his debut film ''O Sangue'' at the age of 30.
Costa's films would receive acclaim from critics consistently throughout his career. He collected the France Culture Award (Foreign Cineaste of the Year) at 2002 Cannes Film Festival for directing ''In Vanda's Room''. ''Colossal Youth'' was selected for the 2006 Cannes Film Festival<ref name="cannes-2006.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/4360212/year/2006.html|title=Festival de Cannes: Colossal Youth|access-date=2009-12-13|work=festival-cannes.com}}</ref> and earned the Independent/Experimental prize (Los Angeles Film Critics Association) in 2008. ''Horse Money'' was awarded the Leopard for Best Director in 2014, while his ''Vitalina Varela'' was awarded the Gold Leopard for Best Film in 2019.
==Style and influences== He is considered to be part of "The School of Reis" film family. António Reis, Portuguese director, was his teacher at the Lisbon Theatre and Film School.
His menteeship under directors Straub–Huillet was explored in his 2001 documentary "Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie?". Stephen Whitty of Screen Daily described Costa's films as "lit like a Rembrandt, [and] acted like a neo-realist classic."<ref>{{cite web |last=Whitty |first=Stephen |date=2019-09-25 |title='Vitalina Varela': Review |url=https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/vitalina-varela-review/5143199.article |access-date=2022-10-16 |website=Screen }}</ref> He is acclaimed for using his ascetic style to depict marginalised people, often non-actors playing themselves, in desperate living situations. Shot on digital video and making use of non-actors, Costa's early works have been called examples of docufiction. Although continuing to collaborate with non-actors in his later works, he would gradually transition away from the low-resolution documentary style into what critic Armond White characterised as "museum-quality compositions".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-03-25 |title=Pedro Costa: The Rembrandt of the Ghetto |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/movie-review-vitalina-vaerla-pedro-costa-exposes-hollywood-failed-pathos/ |access-date=2022-10-15 |website=National Review |language=en-US}}</ref>
=== Fontainhas sequence === From the release of Ossos onwards, Costa's films have been entirely set in Fontainhas, a slum neighbourhood on the outskirts of Lisbon. His subjects, immigrants and the socially disadvantaged, feature as recurring characters throughout the sequence. One notable example is the character of Ventura, protagonist of both ''Colossal Youth'' and ''Horse Money''.
==Political views== In December 2023, alongside 50 other filmmakers, Costa signed an open letter published in ''Libération'' demanding a ceasefire and an end to the killing of civilians amid the 2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, and for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to be established for humanitarian aid, and the release of hostages.<ref>{{cite news|date=28 December 2023|title=Gaza : des cinéastes du monde entier demandent un cessez-le-feu immédiat|url=https://www.liberation.fr/idees-et-debats/tribunes/gaza-des-cineastes-du-monde-entier-demandent-un-cessez-le-feu-immediat-20231228_WMAUSVJVLFEBNK4ME4XU3ZRU3M/|newspaper=Libération|language=fr|access-date=24 January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://thefilmstage.com/claire-denis-ryusuke-hamaguchi-kiyoshi-kurosawa-christian-petzold-apichatpong-weerasethakul-more-sign-demand-for-ceasefire-in-gaza/|title=Claire Denis, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Christian Petzold, Apichatpong Weerasethakul & More Sign Demand for Ceasefire in Gaza|last=Newman|first=Nick|date=29 December 2023|website=The Film Stage|access-date=24 January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|date=31 December 2023|title=Directors of cinema sign petition for immediate ceasefire|url=https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-780176|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post|access-date=24 January 2024}}</ref>
In January 2024, alongside over 300 other filmmakers, producers and actors, Costa signed an open letter against the cuts to the funding of the Argentine film agency INCAA contemplated by the so-called omnibus bill.<ref>{{Cite web|website=La Nación|url=https://www.lanacion.com.ar/espectaculos/cine/de-pedro-almodovar-a-gael-garcia-bernal-referentes-del-cine-mundial-firmaron-una-carta-en-apoyo-del-nid22012024/|date=22 January 2024|title=De Pedro Almodóvar a Gael García Bernal, referentes del cine mundial firmaron una carta en apoyo del Incaa}}</ref>
==Filmography==
===Features=== * ''O Sangue'' (1989) * ''Casa de Lava'' (1994) * ''Ossos'' (1997) * ''In Vanda's Room'' (2000) * ''Colossal Youth'' (2006) * ''Horse Money'' (2014) * ''Vitalina Varela'' (2019)
===Documentaries and shorts=== * ''Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie?'' (2001) (documentary) * "The End of a Love Affair" (2003) (short) * "State of the World" (2007) -''Tarrafa'' segment (short) * "Memories" (2007) - ''The Rabbit Hunter'' segment (short) * ''Change Nothing'' (2009) (documentary) * "O nosso Homem" (2010) (short) * "Sweet Exorcist" (2012) - ''Centro Histórico'' segment (short)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://spectrumculture.com/2013/07/22/centro-historico/|title=Centro Histórico|first=Jesse|last=Cataldo|date=July 22, 2013|website=Spectrum Culture}}></ref> * "The Daughters of Fire" (2023) (short)
===Plays=== * ''The Daughters of Fire'' (2016)
==See also== * Docufiction * Ethnofiction * List of directors associated with art film
==References== {{reflist}}
== Further reading == * Malte Hagener / Tina Kaiser (ed.), ''Pedro Costa''. ''Film-Konzepte'' 41 (edition text + kritik, 2016). * Fajgenbaum, Emma, ''Cinema as Disquiet - The Ghostly Realism of Pedro Costa'', New Left Review 116, London (June 2019).
==External links== * {{IMDb name|id=0182276}}
{{Pedro Costa}} {{Locarno Film Festival Best Director Award}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Costa, Pedro}} Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:Film directors from Lisbon Category:University of Lisbon alumni Category:Portuguese-language film directors Category:Lisbon Theatre and Film School alumni