As loved as he is hated, it would not be an overstatement to say that David Cronenberg is one of the most inventive and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Treating cinema as, in his words, a philosophical exploration, Cronenberg built a career between horror and science fiction by bringing to life to our worries about humanity’s idiosyncrasies and contradictions in modern society. Over five decades. he has more often than not operated outside the commercial circuit and the presumptions of Hollywood.

This retrospective — the most complete to date presented in Portugal — and one of the most popular film programmes since Batalha opened — we screen all of his feature films and some of his shorts, alongside films by other directors that have influenced him, and other films clearly influenced by his work.

In December, the program enters the final stretch of Cronenberg’s filmography, where the director continues to explore ideas of transformation, abandoning body horror to focus on the human psyche.