"Serpentarius", by director Carlos Conceição, will be screened at the 58th Ann Arbor Film Festival, one of the most renowned festivals of avant-garde experimental cinema in North America, to be held from March 24 to 29.
"Serpentarius", which is part of Ann Arbor's main international competitive section, is the first feature film by Carlos Conceição and it follows a boy who wanders through an African post-disaster landscape in search of his mother and is starred by João Arrais, with the participation of Isabel Abreu.
This is the first film by the Portuguese production company Mirabilis de António Gonçalves e Carlos Conceição, with promotion and distribution by the Short Film Agency. "Serpentarius" has been acclaimed by the critics in the world cinema panorama, however, without having yet premiered in Portugal.
"Serpentarius" had its world premiere in the Forum section of the Berlin Festival and was presented for the first time in Portugal at Curtas Vila do Conde, where Carlos Conceição was the Director in Focus. Since then, the film has been awarded the Prize for Best Director at the “Novos Cinemas” in Pontevedra, the Doclisboa Revelation Prize, the Nuove Visione Prize in Sicilia Queer, Italy, the Audience Prize at the Burgas Film Festival in Bulgaria, the Prize for Best Editing at the Filmadrid Festival (as well as the Honorable Mention for Best Film), and also the Honorable Mention by the Nouveaux Alquimistes Jury at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Canada.
Carlos Conceição grew up between Portugal and the desert in southern Angola until he joined the Lisbon Film School in 2002. He had previously studied English Romance Literature. His first short film, "Carne" (2010), was awarded New Talent at Indie Lisboa in 2010, while "Versailles" (2013) competed at the Locarno Film Festival. Both "Good Night Cinderella" (2014) and "Bad Rabbit" (2017) debuted in the Critics Week of the Cannes Festival with very enthusiastic responses. Carlos was also the subject of full retrospectives of his work at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris and at the Amiens Film Festival.
More information about the festival here.
