Invited teacher João Canijo wins de silver bear at the berlinale

The Silver Bear Jury Prize went to "Bad Living" (Mal Viver) by Joᾶo Canijo. João Canijo is one of the most prominent Portuguese filmmakers and stage directors of his generation. Since 1998, João Canijo has a number of films that made him one of the most important Portuguese filmmakers. “In the Darkness of the Night” or “Misbegotten” show his interest in the investigation of Portuguese identity.

“Blood of My Blood”, one of his last feature films, was applauded by critics and the public, was present in numerous festivals, and was selected as the Portuguese entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist. He has also been working in theatre and television.

His films have been shown in numerous film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, and San Sebastian. Joao Canijo was Film Studies teacher at Lusófona University, following that he became the directing tutor at Kino Eyes - The European Film Masters from 2015 to 2019 where he mentored aspiring directing international students. He is a guest lecturer giving master classes on his method on working with actors and actresses to Kino Eyes students along with BA and MA students from the film department of Lusófona.