Pedro Costa
Pedro Costa (born 30 December 1958) is a Portuguese filmmaker. His films are usually set in the Greater Lisbon Area, starring non-professional actors and focusing on the lives of the impoverished immigrants residents of slums in Fontainhas, Amadora. For Vitalina Varela (2019) he won the Golden Leopard at the 72nd Locarno Film Festival.
Pedro Costa
Joost Pauwels · CC0
- Born
- 1959. · Lisbon.
- Nationality
- Portugal.
- Occupation
- screenwriter, film editor, cinematographer, lighting designer and director.
- Education
- University of Lisbon.
- Honours
- Prix France Culture Cinéma and Annual award ACFK.
- Languages
- Portuguese.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Pedro Costa (born 30 December 1958) is a Portuguese filmmaker. His films are usually set in the Greater Lisbon Area, starring non-professional actors and focusing on the lives of the impoverished immigrants residents of slums in Fontainhas, Amadora. For Vitalina Varela (2019) he won the Golden Leopard at the 72nd Locarno Film Festival.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Pedro Costa (born 1959) is a cinematographer, director and film director, among other activities, of Portuguese nationality. The cinematographer was born in Lisbon.
Pedro Costa was educated at University of Lisbon. The cinematographer worked for Tokyo Zokei University.
Languages used include Portuguese. Works are held at Museum of Modern Art. Honours include Annual award ACFK and Prix France Culture Cinéma.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 30 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Pedro Costa. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
gnd · 1278705198 · wikidata · Q1354061 · wikipedia · Pedro Costa
In this article
Biography
Biography
Pedro Costa studied at University of Lisbon. The recorded working language is Portuguese. Employment is recorded with Tokyo Zokei University. Work by Pedro Costa is recorded in the collections of Museum of Modern Art. Distinctions recorded are Prix France Culture Cinéma and Annual award ACFK.
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. 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 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.
Fontainhas sequence
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
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. 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.
Filmography ===== Features =
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
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) • "The Daughters of Fire" (2023) (short)
Plays
Plays
• The Daughters of Fire (2016)
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." 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".
References ==== Further reading
References ==== 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).
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Prémios Gulbenkian: Realizador Pedro Costa distinguido na categoria Arte. Jornal de Notícias. 11 July 2008.
- 2.Letters from Fontainhas: Three Films by Pedro Costa. The Criterion Collection.
- 3.Pedro Costa IFFR. iffr.com.
- 4.Festival de Cannes: Colossal Youth. festival-cannes.com.
- 5.Whitty, Stephen. 'Vitalina Varela': Review. Screen. 2019-09-25.
- 6.Pedro Costa: The Rembrandt of the Ghetto. National Review. 2020-03-25.
- 7.Gaza : des cinéastes du monde entier demandent un cessez-le-feu immédiat. Libération. 28 December 2023.
- 8.Newman, Nick. Claire Denis, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Christian Petzold, Apichatpong Weerasethakul & More Sign Demand for Ceasefire in Gaza. The Film Stage. 29 December 2023.
- 9.Directors of cinema sign petition for immediate ceasefire. The Jerusalem Post. 31 December 2023.
- 10.De Pedro Almodóvar a Gael García Bernal, referentes del cine mundial firmaron una carta en apoyo del Incaa. La Nación. 22 January 2024.
- 11.Cataldo, Jesse. Centro Histórico. Spectrum Culture. July 22, 2013.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 2
- 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).
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Film memorabilia
37,298 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Pedro AlonsoPerson
- Pedro ArmendárizPerson
- Pedro Armendáriz Jr.Person
- Pedro CasablancPerson
- Pedro DamiánPerson
- Pedro Flores MaldonadoPerson
- Pedro González GonzálezPerson
- Pedro KosPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Pedro Costa?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.