Pedro Costa
Born	(1958-12-30) 30 December 1958 (age 63) Lisbon, Portugal
Nationality	Portuguese
Alma mater	University of Lisbon Lisbon Theatre and Film School
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter
Years active	1984–present

Pedro Costa (born 30 December 1958)^[1] is a Portuguese film director.

Biography

He collected the France Culture Award (Foreign Cineaste of the Year) at 2002 Cannes Film Festival for directing the film In Vanda's Room. Colossal Youth was selected for the 2006 Cannes Film Festival^[2] and earned the Independent/Experimental prize (Los Angeles Film Critics Association) in 2008.

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.

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called Pedro Costa "the Samuel Beckett of cinema".^[3] He is acclaimed for using his ascetic style to depict the marginalised people in desperate living situations. Many of his films are set in a district of Lisbon inhabited by socially disadvantaged and shot in a natural and low-key way in documentary format: some are docufictions.

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

• Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie? (2001) (documentary)
• State of the World (2007) - "Tarrafal" segment (short)
• Memories (2007) - "The Rabbit Hunters" segment (short)
• Change Nothing (2009) (documentary)

Plays

• The Daughters of Fire (2016)