João Canijo
The cause of the 68-year-old director’s death was not announced. He was finishing his latest film project and filmed a play two weeks ago.
The Portuguese director João Canijo He died this Thursday, a source from production company Midas Filmes told Lusa.
The director, who turned 68 last December, was found dead at home by his domestic worker, according to .
According to the same source, the director, born in Porto, died near Vila Viçosa, district of Évora, where he usually shared his residence with Lisbon, and the cause of death was not announced.
Silver Bear in Berlin 2023 with the film, Canijo was finishing the most recent film project, the film “Encenação”, as well as filming, around two weeks ago, a theater play related to it. I was currently working again with Rita Blanco, Anabela Moreira, Beatriz Batarda and Cleia Almeida and, now, Miguel Guilherme.
Born in 1957, Canijo attended the History course at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto between 1978 and 1980, where he discovered his vocation for cinema.
He entered the industry as an assistant director, according to , having worked with names such as Manoel de Oliveira, Wim Wenders, Alain Tanner and Werner Schroeter.
The first feature film, Three Minus Medebuted in 1988. In the 1990s he signed the television series Alentejo Without Lawbefore dedicating himself almost entirely to cinema with Black Shoes (1998), Earn a Living (2001), Bad Born (2007) e Blood of My Blood (2011), a film that consolidated its recognition among critics and the public before returning in 2023 with the diptych Evil Living e Living Badly.
Evil Living was selected for the official competition at the Berlin Film Festival and ended up winning the Silver Bear, the jury’s prize, with the director competing for the Golden Bear. That same year, he also received a career award at the Cineuropa festivalin Santiago de Compostela, and the film was chosen as Portugal’s candidate for the Oscar for Best International Film.
