Marco Martins and actress Beatriz Batarda come together for Arena, a conversation about cinema, theater, and the challenges of artistic creation.
The discussion will focus on their collaborative works, including Marco Martins' latest film, Great Yarmouth: Provisional Figures, in which Beatriz Batarda plays the lead role. These two events will take place at the Ilídio Pinho Auditorium, at the School of Arts of the Portuguese Catholic University in Porto.
This will be the third conference in our annual program of concerts, conferences, exhibitions, and performances, O Estrangeiro, curated by Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida, Daniel Ribas, José Alberto Gomes, and Nuno Crespo.
Born in 1972, Marco Martins studied at the Lisbon Theatre and Film School before completing his screenwriting training at the Tisch School of the Arts in the United States. In 1999, he co-founded Ministério dos Filmes, an award-winning advertising production company that later expanded into television fiction, debuting with the eight-episode series SARA, which premiered in October 2018 on RTP2. The first two episodes were screened at IndieLisboa 2018.
Martins' work spans cinema, visual arts, and theater. His films have been featured in major international festivals, with Alice (2005) winning the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs' Prix Regard Jeune at the Cannes Film Festival. He has also received awards at festivals such as Mar del Plata, Rotterdam, and London Raindance, as well as the Fassbinder Award (European Discovery of the Year). In 2006, he directed the short film Um Ano Mais Longo, co-written with Tonino Guerra, which competed at the Venice Film Festival.
His most recent film, São Jorge, competed at Venice, where lead actor Nuno Lopes won the Leão de Ouro - Horizons Award. The film was commercially released in several countries and, like Alice, was pre-selected for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film and the Goya Awards. In Portugal, São Jorge won multiple awards from the Portuguese Society of Authors, including Best Portuguese Film of 2017, and received seven Sophia Awards from the Portuguese Academy of Cinema.
In visual arts, Martins has collaborated with various artists, notably co-directing the multi-channel video installation Twenty One - The Day the World Didn’t End with Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, exhibited at the Louvre Museum as part of the Year One - Earthly Paradise retrospective. He also co-directed Insert with Portuguese artist Filipa César, a work that won the BES Arte e Finança Award and Best Director at IndieLisboa (2011).
In theater, he co-founded Arena Ensemble with Beatriz Batarda in 2007. The company has regularly staged productions at major national theaters, balancing classical text-based performances with strong choreographic elements and community-based projects. His latest theater project, Provisional Figures: Great Yarmouth, premiered at the Norwich & Norfolk Festival.
Born in 1974 in London, Beatriz Batarda holds Portuguese nationality and grew up in Lisbon, where she attended the Lycée Français Charles Lepierre and studied Design at IADE. She made her film debut in João Botelho’s feature film Tempos Difíceis (1988), followed by roles in Vale Abraão (1993) and A Caixa (1994) by Manoel de Oliveira, and Elas (1997) by Luís Galvão Teles.
In 1998, Batarda was selected for Shooting Stars, a European Film Promotion initiative highlighting emerging European film talents. Her filmography includes Quaresma (2003) by José Álvaro Morais, A Costa dos Murmúrios (2004) by Margarida Cardoso, Alice (2005) and São Jorge (2016) by Marco Martins, and Duas Mulheres (2009) by João Mário Grilo.
In theater, she co-founded Arena Ensemble with Marco Martins in 2007, presenting regular performances in leading national theaters.
