Biography

Marco Martins (born 1972 in Lisbon, Portugal) is a Portuguese film director, best known for his 2005 film Alice, which premiered at Cannes and won the Best Picture Award at the Directors' Fortnight. In 1994 Marco Martins graduated from Lisbon Theatre and Film School (Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema), and soon afterwards undertook an apprenticeship with Wim Wenders, Manoel de Oliveira and Bertrand Tavernier. For two years following, he worked as assistant director to João Canijo, a fellow Portuguese director. During this period, his short films "Mergulho no Ano Novo" and 'No Caminho Para a Escola received critical acclaim, the former winning Best Short Film Award at the International Short Films Festival of Vila do Conde, and the latter taking Best Short Film and Best Director Awards at the VII Festival Ibérico de Cinema de Badajoz as well as the Eixo Atlântico Award at the Festival de Ourense He began shooting advertisements in the late 90's and in 2002 started his own production company, "Ministério dos Filmes", which has received multiple international awards. In 2005, his first feature film, Alice, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and received a number of international awards and made the long list for the Academy Awards Foreign Language Film prize.