Born in 1986 in Santiago do Cacém, Gonçalo Almeida moved to London in 2012, where he completed a master's degree in Cinema at the London Film School and began his career as a director. Gonçalo Almeida is one of the leading names in Portuguese fantastic cinema, renowned for his work with non-human actors and the success of "THURSDAY NIGHT" — a film starring two dogs nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018. The film gained international press attention and received the Best Short Horror Director award at the Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the United States, as well as the award for Best Portuguese Short Film at MotelX. In 2019, back in Portugal, Gonçalo premiered his first feature film, "KEEP ME COMPANY," in NOS Audiovisuais cinemas and later joined the selection of directors at the 69th Berlinal Talents Program. In 2020, he was awarded the NICO prize by the Portuguese Academy of Cinema, recognizing emerging talents in Portuguese cinema. In 2022, with "THE GIRL FROM SATURN" Gonçalo received a nomination for Best Fiction Short Film at the Sophia Awards of the Portuguese Academy of Cinema and was awarded, for the second time, at Fantastic Fest, Texas. In early 2023, his project "THE ADVENT" was selected from 300 candidates for the European Feature Film Development program LIM (LESS IS MORE).
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
THE ADVENT (FEATURE FILM) 2026
RED CLOUD BLUE HEAVEN (SHORT FILM) 2025
ATOM & VOID (SHORT FILM) 2024
EVERYTHING SEEMS PERFECT (FEATURE FILM) 2024
THE GIRL FROM SATURN (SHORT FILM) 2021
KEEP ME COMPANY (FEATURE FILM) 2019
THURSDAY NIGHT (SHORT FILM) 2017
PHANTOM (SHORT FILM) 2017
CONDRONG (SHORT FILM) 2016
SEVERED GARDEN ( SHORT FILM) 2015