DOComentar – N2 – 18 nov ’24

An active film producer, he founded the production and distribution company ZULFILMES in 2010, producing mainly documentary films, his great passion after a long professional experience that began in 1989.
He has collaborated on national and foreign productions, including “Amok” by Joël Farges, “El Perro del Hortelano” by Pilar Miró, “La Sirene Rouge” by Olivier Megaton, among others, especially “Belle Epoque” by Fernando Trueba, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1992.
As a producer, Fernando has made several documentaries, such as “O Tapete Voador” by João Mário Grilo and “VIEIRARPAD” by the same director, among many others in co-productions such as “Dos Rivales Casi Iguales” by Miguel Angel Buttini; or taking on the Production and Executive Production Department on films such as “Passagem da Noite” by Luís Filipe Rocha, “Lá Fora” by Fernando Lopes, “Noite Escura” by João Canijo, “Lobos” by José Nascimento and the Portuguese production of “Pai e Filho” by the great Russian master Alexander Soukurov. His academic activity began at the University of Évora (Oficina de Produção Cinematográfica 2006/7), and as a lecturer and project manager at Universidade Moderna.
Since 2007 he has been teaching Production Strategies, Production Atelier, Animation Production Strategies and coordinating Final Degree Projects at the Lusófona University of Humanities and Technologies in Lisbon and also at ETIC, teaching modules and workshops. He has always combined filmmaking with fiction and entertainment television production, collaborating on various series and formats.
Fernando has developed and produced several feature-length fiction projects such as “Viriato” by Luís Albuquerque, “Por Onde Escapam as Palavras” by the same director and essentially documentaries at Zulfilmes such as “Ruy Belo, Era Uma Vez” by Fernando Centeio and Nuno Costa Santos, “Fado” by Sofia de Portugal and Aurélio Vasques, ‘Gesto’ by António Borges Correia, the documentary series ‘Puro Fado’, as well as producing 2 Cinema Cycles for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (P’ra Rir and P’ ra Rir/ outra vez) and the Esplendor na Relva Cinema Cycle at the Monserrate Natural Park in Sintra.
He divides his life between being a Film and Television Producer, Promoter/Producer in the case of Cinema Cycles, in addition to his academic activity. In 2022 he distributed “VIEIRARPAD”, one of the most watched Portuguese documentaries of the year, and finished the feature film “N2 – A Estrada que Nos Liga”, scheduled for release in 2024, with an excellent track record at international film festivals, including the Finisterra Bahia/Brazil and Arrábida festivals, where he won 7 awards, including 4 first prizes, a second place and 2 third places. It was shown on RTP Channel 2, then on RTP1 with 2 screenings, after great success on RTP Channel 2 and TVCine Channels.