After a decade in the North Region, the ART&TUR Festival moves to the Center of Portugal. In a strategic partnership with the Regional Tourism Entity of Center of Portugal and with the host municipalities, ART&TUR will make 8 years of itinerancy in the Central Region, traveling through the various sub regions.
The 11th edition took place from October 23 to 27, 2018 in Leiria. Teatro Miguel Franco was the stage chosen for the event that was a success from the first day. Young students, tourism and film professionals and the general public often filled the room to watch the best travel promotion films and the conference “Promoting Center of Portugal as film location for the World Cinema”, which took place simultaneously, with several speakers and national and international experts.
This edition was also marked by a new initiative – Art&Factory: an audiovisual production competition in which several teams from various countries participate with the aim of producing promotional films in the village networks of the Center of Portugal: Schist Villages and Historic Villages of Portugal. In the 1st edition of Art&Factory participated 6 teams: Brazil, India, South Africa/Ireland, Japan, Netherlands/Romania and Pakistan/USA/Portugal.
When asked about this 1st edition of the ART&TUR Festival in the Central Region, Francisco Dias, founder and director of the Festival highlighted: “Taking ART&TUR to the Center of Portugal was undoubtedly a winning bet. The Festival is growing from year to year and Leiria has proved to be the ideal destination to host the event. It’s exciting to see so many young people in the audience, alongside directors and producers from around the world. In particular, I would like to highlight the response given by the filmmakers challenged to participate in Art&Factory: in a few days they showed many different visions of our villages, all of them of great quality. The final balance of the event is clearly positive and exceeds the expectation of the organization and certainly of the assistance. “