The world lost its oldest active director on Thursday when the Portuguese film-maker died in Oporto. He was 106.
Oliveira was born in Oporto in 1908 at a time when the film industry was in its infancy and the onset of WWI was six years away.
He made his first silent film Douro, Faina Fluvial in 1931 but was stifled by the Salazar dictatorship in his home country and it was not until the regime collapsed in 1968 that the 60-year-old Oliveira was ready to began his film-making career in earnest.
Oliveira was a regular at Cannes and Venice – O Velho de Restelo screened on the Lido last year – and by the end of his life he had made more than 30; remarkably turning out one a year while in his 90s.
His credits included Cannes 1999 jury prize winner La Lettre, Cannes FIPRESCI 1997 winner The Strange Case Of Angelica, O Convento, Voyage To The Beginning Of The World and Francisca.
The film-maker earned four Portuguese Golden Globes, while honorary awards include the Locarno Leopard Of Honor in 1992, a Career Golden Lion in Venice in 2004, an honorary Palme d’Or in Cannes in 2008 and a Portuguese career Golden Globe in 2009.
Oliveira is survived by his wife, Maria Isabel Brandão de Meneses de Almeida Carvalhais.
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