Luís Miguel Cintra

An iconic actor and stage director in Portugal Luís Miguel Cintra was born in Madrid in 1949 His connection to theater began in 1968 at the Faculty of Letters Theater Group when he was studying Romance Philology at the University of Lisbon From 1970 to 1972 he attended the Acting Technical Course in the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School thanks to a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation When he returned to Portugal he founded along with Jorge Silva Melo the Teatro da Cornucópia Company in 1973 where he directed plays by some of the great names in theater including Aeschylus Sophocles Shakespeare Brecht Beckett Strindberg and many others almost always participating as an actor in the plays he directed At the same time until the 80s he was a theater critic for O Tempo e o Modo magazine and he managed the Seara Nova Theater Collection from Estampa publishing house and the Theater Collection from Ulmeiro publishing house As a reader Luís Miguel Cintra recorded complete readings of Viagens na Minha Terra by Almeida Garrett and Amor de Perdição by Camilo Castelo Branco as well as poems by Pessoa Sophia de Mello Breyner Camões Antero de Quental and Ruy Belo In 1987 Cintra made his debut as an opera stage director with LEnfant et les Sortilèges by Ravel and Dido and Aeneas by Purcell at the Teatro Nacional de S Carlos In the following years he directed operas by Mozart Haydn Cherubini among others He worked with the Teatro Nacional de S Carlos Choir and the Gulbenkian Choir as a reader in recitals by authors such as Schubert Liszt Sati and Poulenc In 1984 he entered the Venice Biennial Theater Festival with his group and in 1988 he directed the show La Mort du Prince et Autres Fragments by Fernando Pessoa for the Avignon Festival Later he kept on presenting plays in Italy France Spain and Belgium In addition to the theater Luís Miguel Cintra began his career in cinema early making his debut in a short film by João César Monteiro From that point until now he worked in over 70 films with directors like the aforementioned João César Monteiro Paulo Rocha Manoel de Oliveira Joaquim Pinto João Botelho Teresa Villaverde Pedro Costa and the American John Malkovich His many awards include two Bordalo da Casa da Imprensa Awards for Best Acting in Film 1995 and Best Acting in Theater 1997 two Globos de Ouro for Theater Personality of the Year 1999 and Best Theater Actor 2003 the Coimbra University Award and the Pessoa Prize both in 2005 The LEFFEST will pay tribute to Luís Miguel Cintras work as an actor through a selection of films he starred in and as a stage director showing recordings of some of the plays followed by discussions with the audience and several actors he worked with