With the aim of exploring, appreciating and promoting portuguese film heritage, Batalha commissions an annual programme entirely dedicated to its cinema and its history. The selection of films is broad but incisive, composed of both established and lesser known filmmakers, ever fundamental for a complete consideration of Portuguese cinema.

In 2025, the programme restarts with a new team of guest curators proposing a selection of films that will focus on the various territories and transgressions of Portuguese cinema from different eras. The first chapter, entitled "Subsoil", focuses on fields traditionally less explored by Portuguese cinema — the fantastic, horror and supernatural — in which various filmmakers have sought to sow, taking advantage of the codifications of the genre, fundamental themes for understanding Portuguese communities, social dynamics and psyche.

This segment kicks off with a screening of a silent film "hallucination", A Dança dos Paroxismos, by Jorge Brum do Canto — with live sound by the Ilusão Gótica project and a presentation by researcher José Bértolo. Until March, films by Noémia Delgado, Manuel Guimarães, João Canijo, and others will be showcased.

Curated by Carlos Natálio (professor and film critic), Joana Gusmão (producer and organizer) and Luísa Sequeira (film maker and organizer)
Programme developed with the support of the Cinemateca Portuguesa — Museu do Cinema