Pedro Costa | |
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Born | |
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.
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.
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.