João Canijo, professor at the School of Arts, wins Silver Bear at Berlin

João Canijo, professor at the School of Arts, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, won the Silver Bear Jury Prize, for the film "Mal Viver", in the main section of the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival. The award was delivered on February 25th, at the ceremony in Berlin and is one of the most prestigious awards received in the history of Portuguese cinema.

The selection of the film was also unprecedented, as it was made in duplicate with "Viver Mal", a kind of mirror film, which competed in the parallel section Encounters. The reception of this project, in diptych, was very enthusiastic, as it allowed to expand the very conceptions of contemporary cinema.

"Mal Viver" and "Viver Mal" follow the lives of several characters in a hotel in the North of Portugal. In the first film, the narrative focuses on the story of the hotel owners, five women from the same family. In the second, it follows the lives of the clients: three different families, in an episodic structure that adapts three plays by Swedish playwright August Stindberg.

Filmed with the direction of photography by Leonor Teles - director, who has also won a prize in Berlin for one of her short films - this project cements the place of Canijo in the context of contemporary cinema, through the construction of a claustrophobic and violent family melodrama. An intense look at complicated human relationships, with an impressive ensemble of actresses: Anabela Moreira, Rita Blanco, Madalena Almeida, Cleia Almeida, Vera Barreto, Filipa Areosa, Leonor Silveira, Lia Carvalho, Beatriz Batarda, Carolina Amaral and Leonor Vasconcelos.

João Canijo has been a professor at the School of the Arts of Universidade Católica for several years and is currently tutor for the Final Project of the Bachelor Degree in Cinema. He has also taught in the Master's Degree in Cinema. João Braz, also present in the project, is a professor in the Bachelor Degree in Cinema, in the editing area.