Film Series at Cruzeiro
In 2026, (almost) every film genre will be featured at the Carlos Avilez Auditorium in Estoril. Throughout the year and every Monday (with a few notable exceptions), the D. Luís I Foundation presents a programme that revisits some of the key examples of these genres, which emerged with the Seventh Art and have become established as ways of telling stories through images and sound.
Each genre will have its own month. We begin with the “genre of genres”, the western, the principal creator of myths about the birth and deeds of a nation, America. Many others will follow, from comedy to horror, from musicals to science fiction, with stops along the way at the stations of melodrama, thriller or animation, amongst others. The journey will centre on the ‘dream factory’ par excellence that was classic Hollywood, but will extend across various eras, geographies and latitudes, in a movement that spans a multitude of socio-cultural contexts and which, inevitably, will also function as (yet another) mini History of Cinema.
At every turn, we shall identify formulas and codes, but also the subversion of conventions, themes and styles, thus tracing the contours of universes in a state of constant flux and renewal, far removed from any fixed realities. For this very reason, alongside craftsmen and “genre filmmakers”, we shall also encounter auteurs of the most diverse sensibilities: in some cases, drawing upon these “common frameworks” to better explore personal obsessions and very particular idiosyncrasies; in others, voluntarily “erasing” themselves in the face of the power of established archetypes and thus, paradoxically, reinventing themselves.
Between the joy of recognition and the pleasure of surprise, between the canon and its many variations, there will therefore be no shortage of reasons to enjoy a “game” in which so many other (sub)genres and participants would naturally find their place. Bring on the next chapters...
Organzation: Fundação D. Luís I, with the support of Cascais Municipal Council
