The festival extends its programme to new venues, strengthens the Galicia–Portugal axis and expands its professional activities, attracting more than 6,000 attendees
The 22nd edition of Play-Doc, Tui International Film Festival, held from 29 April to 3 May 2026, concluded with increased attendance, an expanded network of venues and a strengthened professional programme. The festival welcomed more than 6,000 in-person attendees and nearly 2,000 online views, bringing together filmmakers, industry professionals, researchers and audiences around a programme that combined international cinema with a strong commitment to filmmaking from the region and to some of the most distinctive forms of contemporary audiovisual creation.
Play-Doc expanded its activities, presenting its programme simultaneously across four cinemas and a number of other venues throughout the city, incorporating heritage, cultural and educational spaces into the festival. This edition also strengthened its relationship with the Portuguese audiovisual sector, both through its programming and through the participation of professionals in its training and industry activities, within a framework of sustained collaboration between Galicia and Portugal.
Discoveries, Unprecedented Retrospectives and Contemporary Cinema
The programme brought together more than 50 films from over 20 countries across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia, maintaining a curatorial approach centred on the discovery and rediscovery of filmmakers and on presenting works and filmographies that remain little known, previously unseen or rarely screened.
This approach took shape in retrospectives devoted to Viola Stephan —presented as an international premiere—, Eduardo Coutinho, a major figure in film history, and Rafael Luca de Tena, whose work represents both a rarity and a remarkable discovery within Galician cinema. These programmes continued the festival’s longstanding commitment to presenting unprecedented retrospectives and recovering and recirculating rarely screened works.
The festival also introduced a new Filmmaker in Focus section, devoted in this edition to Franco-Portuguese filmmaker Maureen Fazendeiro. Her work was presented in what was her first international retrospective, establishing a direct link between the festival’s programming and its industry strand through VENTURA, the platform where Fazendeiro developed her project As Estações, later premiered at the Locarno Film Festival.
The competitive sections —International and Galicia— featured a selection of works reflecting the formal and thematic diversity of contemporary cinema, with a particularly strong presence of Galician filmmaking. The International Competition Award went to Amílcar, by Miguel Eek, while the Galicia Competition Award was presented ex aequo to Furada Negra, by Berio Molina, and Crías, by Xiana do Teixeiro.
Industry, Development and International Co-Production
The festival welcomed more than 150 accredited guests, including filmmakers, audiovisual industry professionals, members of the press and specialist critics, reinforcing its capacity to connect the national audiovisual sector with international networks and industry players.
VENTURA, Play-Doc’s platform for training, project development and international co-production, held its fourth edition as part of the festival, bringing together seven Galician projects in development and more than twenty international professionals, including producers, agents and experts in financing, co-production, distribution and audience development.
The programme concluded with the following awards: the VENTURA Award went to Lebrescura, by Xacio Baño; the NUMAX / DCP Deliveries Award to Praza do Punto, by Aira Portos; the VFX CORMORAN Award to Xente planta, by Xiana do Teixeiro; and the Porto/Post/Doc Industry Screenings Award to Auras, by Nela Fraga.
Over the course of its editions, the programme has supported projects that have gone on to participate in major international platforms and events, including the Locarno Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, as well as initiatives such as TorinoFilmLab, Cannes Critics’ Week and Visions du Réel, consolidating VENTURA’s position within the European professional circuit.
Within this context, the festival further strengthened its role as a meeting point for professionals, projects and institutions, with particular emphasis on the Galicia–Portugal axis as a framework for collaboration, encouraging co-production and circulation in a transnational environment. This included meetings focused on international co-production and the current state of the Galician audiovisual sector, with representatives from the ICAA, ICA Portugal and AGADIC, as well as initiatives such as Coming Soon, devoted to projects currently in progress.
Training, Audience Development and Critical Reflection on Cinema
The edition included a programme of workshops, masterclasses and encounters addressing different areas of filmmaking practice and some of the sector’s main current challenges.
Highlights included the participation of Oscar-winning sound designer Nicolas Becker in a session devoted to sound in cinema, as well as a masterclass by João Moreira Salles focused on the work of Eduardo Coutinho.
The festival also organised activities for students and the local community, including dedicated sessions for secondary-school and university students, as well as internships integrated into the festival’s production team and a community filmmaking workshop, contributing to audience development and film education.
Cinema, Heritage and Expanded Cinema Practices
Play-Doc developed a strand of programming that positions historical and architectural heritage as an active part of the cinematic experience, taking cinema beyond the screening room and establishing a direct relationship between films, spaces and audiences.
Within this framework, Cine Recorridos has become one of the festival’s most distinctive initiatives: a nocturnal itinerary through Tui’s historic quarter in which live audiovisual interventions unfold in real time, bringing together image, sound and architecture.
The route culminates at the Church of San Domingos, where the festival presents site-specific interventions alongside a programme of silent cinema with live music, offering an unusual experience that revives historical modes of exhibition while reinforcing cinema’s collective dimension.
In these projects, cinema is no longer confined to the screen, but is constructed through a direct relationship with space, sound and the audience, incorporating heritage and architecture as active elements of the work itself. This approach has become one of the festival’s defining characteristics, closely linked to the city of Tui and its rich historical and architectural fabric.
Cultural and Social Impact and Local Economic Return
After more than two decades, Play-Doc continues to create from Tui a meeting point for filmmakers, films and audiences, through a model that champions cultural decentralisation and brings together programming, training and industry within a shared context of professional exchange and international circulation.
The festival generates sustained cultural, professional and social impact, while contributing directly to the vitality of its surroundings by activating the local ecosystem through the involvement of audiences, guests, professionals and locally based services.
This impact is accompanied by direct economic benefits for local businesses, suppliers and professionals, highlighting the role of culture as a driver of activity, industry and opportunity.