With twenty-two years of existence, (the first edition was in 1997) AVANCA Film Festival was awarded first place in 2011 contest of the support film festivals sponsored by ICA / Ministry of Culture.
An additional thematic programming has happened over all these years, giving space to screening of significant works of contemporary cinema appropriately framed in concerns and / or well-defined objectives.
The AVANCA is known as a space for workshops led by personalities of world cinema, and being more than a "master class", has allowed a unique cinema practice. Every year we have always 6 or 7 workshops, bringing together participants from all over Europe. The media have written that this is the largest European area of professional workshops in the field of cinema.
AVANCA is the only festival that congregates a Cinema International Competition, works from the television area, video and new supports of multimedia, with a special concern of exhibit the best world productions done in each category.
Since the first edition, the festival only accepts unprecedented films in Portugal.
The World Premiere competition is unique in our country and was only possible because Avanca became a passage point of unpublished authors and movies with great quality. Films that have their world premiere in the festival, independently of the submitted category, are also participating in the World Premiere Competition.
AVANCA is the Portuguese festival with the highest percentage of worldwide unpublished movies that find here their first showing.
In 2020 Edition, Avanca will bring for the first time the VR Competition, where films in virtual reality 360°, narrative or experimental (but with no interactivity) are allowed.
Since 2010, we have organized the international film conference AVANCA | CINEMA, becoming the most important conference in the field of cinema in the Iberian Peninsula. This conference brings together speakers and participants from around the world.
Thematic exhibitions, editions of books, bibliographic presentations and various projects have marked these last 10 years of AVANCA with the quality that compels the festival and the participants obviously require.
