João Botelho is a Portuguese director and screenwriter, born in 1949. His directorial debut in a feature-film happened with the drama Conversa Acabada, which had its world premiere at the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes, in 1982. Two films followed after that, Um Adeus Português (1985) and Tempos Difíceis – Este Tempo (1988), an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Hard Times (1854) to a Portuguese context which won the FIPRESCI Prize in Venice. Botelho revisited the works of Almeida Garrett with Quem És Tu? (2000), which earned him the Mimmo Rotella Foundation Award in Venice, of Diderot with O Fatalista (2005), of Agustina Bessa-Luís with A Corte do Norte (2008), as well as Pessoa with Filme do Desassossego (2010). Inspired by the classic novel of the same name by Eça de Queirós, his 2014 feature Os Maias became the most watched Portuguese film in theatres that year, exceeding 100 thousand spectators. He went on to direct O Cinema, Manoel de Oliveira e Eu (2016), his love letter to Manoel de Oliveira, and two years later released the historical drama Peregrinação (2018). Throughout his 43-year-long career, Botelho’s films have been regularly screened in Cannes, Rome, Venice, Berlin, Belfort, among other festivals, where he was distinguished with several awards. His most recent film O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis (2020) adapts the iconic novel of the same name written by José Saramago.
