About
Fronteira Filmes
Film Production
Fronteira Filmes is an independent film production company based in Porto, Portugal, focused exclusively on documentary and fiction cinema. Since its foundation, it has built a strong identity through films that challenge contemporary realities and propose a sensitive, reflective engagement with the world. With a deep commitment to both aesthetics and ethics, Fronteira approaches cinema as a space for poetic expression, political reflection, and a meeting point between intimacy and collective experience.
Over the years, Fronteira Filmes has earned national and international recognition with films screened and awarded at multiple festivals. Notable works include A Quem Possa Ouvir-me (1999), a fiction feature awarded at the Figueira da Foz International Film Festival; Shadows (2001), selected for competition at the Rotterdam International Film Festival; the acclaimed documentary Retrato (2004), recognized in Madrid and Tui; Raízes (2009), awarded in Braga and Minho; and CRU (2017), an observational documentary premiered at Dok Leipzig and honoured at the Avanca International Film Festival.
The company is known for embracing collaborative processes and for respecting the unique rhythm of each project. It values what is seen and what remains off-screen, working with multidisciplinary teams and filmmakers who believe in cinema as a space for resistance, imagination, and listening. Creative freedom, artistic rigor, and care-based relationships are at the core of its working environment.
Other recent highlights include Alentejo, fim de tarde (2018), a short environmental documentary; Dividual (2021), a socially-driven film screened at festivals in Sweden, France, and Italy; and O Céu em Queda (2024), the company’s second fiction feature, a lyrical reflection on love and the enduring weight of consequences, scheduled for release in 2024.
Currently in production is Magma, a documentary exploring the lives of abandoned and institutionalized children, supported by the Portuguese Film Institute (ICA). The film continues Fronteira Filmes’ commitment to urgent themes and sensitive, grounded storytelling.
More than just a production company, Fronteira Filmes is a space for thinking and feeling the present through cinema. Its work is defined by a search for cinematic forms that restore dignity to the stories being told, with deep respect for the singularity of each life and the poetic force of the image.







Joel Brandão
Works as producer and director since 2012.
His professional career has taken place in cinema and audiovisual production.
He has produced numerous audiovisuals projects and several fiction and documentary films.
joelbrandao@fronteirafilmes.pt
