A blockbuster film premiere, a banquet of bike brief movies, and scores of colourful motorcycling cinephiles; welcome to the Lisbon Motorbike Movie Competition.
Hosted at Cinema São Jorge—a 78-year-old cinema on Lisbon’s swanky Avenida da Liberdade—the annual Lisbon Motorbike Movie Competition celebrated its eighth working this 12 months. Eight years on the go is a outstanding feat for such a distinct segment occasion, but it surely’s simple to know the attraction once you’re there in individual.
Working from Friday night till Sunday afternoon, the occasion focuses totally on the movies which can be being screened, with little else to distract—and that’s its attraction.
Every day has its personal vibe. Legions of bikes crowd the cobbled boardwalk exterior the venue on Friday night time, overshadowing the myriad distributors that occupy the road market. An enormous banner hangs illuminated from Cinema São Jorge’s facade, proudly displaying Adi Gilbert’s good poster illustration.
Tickets are offered per screening, and tonight is offered out. The LxMFF has bagged a coveted early screening of The Bikeriders—a slow-burn epic impressed by and named after Danny Lyon’s groundbreaking images guide. The movie’s all-star solid of Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, and Jodie Comer stuns underneath the steerage of writer-director Jeff Nichols.
Cinema São Jorge’s predominant theater, the Manoel de Oliveira Room, holds 800 at most capability—so a second, 200-seater theater is opened to cowl the 1,000 tickets offered for the premiere. Because the credit roll, crowds pour out of the cinema and into the road, the place the Portuguese police have shut down the streets for a 2,000-motorcycle-strong night time experience via the streets of Lisbon. Astride a loaned BMW R 1250 R, it’s not like any mass experience I’ve skilled earlier than.
Lisbon’s motorcycling neighborhood displays town’s character; grungy but vibrant. Bikes of all kinds flit between every underneath underneath Lisbon’s midnight lights; a rider in white Doc Marten knockoffs on a vibrant purple Honda CBR600R darts by on my left, whereas an enormous bagger rolls previous me blasting The Offspring on my proper. I hardly get out of first gear.
Saturday’s proceedings kick off within the afternoon, leaving sufficient time for festival-goers to shake off their hangovers from the earlier night time’s after-party. The day is split into a number of screening periods, every full of small collections of brief, motorcycle-themed movies. Many of the movies are in English, with Portuguese subtitles to fulfill the native viewers.
Highlights embrace The Passenger; a haunting movie that offers with loss and mourning from a motorcyclist’s perspective.
Then there’s the thought-provoking The Final Motorbike on Earth, which imagines a near-future the place bikes are on the point of being outlawed in favor of autonomous autos.
After the screening, myself [above center] and Wil Thomas [above left], a filmmaker and one of many stars of The Passenger, are quizzed on our ideas on the electrical car business and the way forward for transportation. The viewers is each accommodating and interesting.
Saturday’s predominant function is Darkish Rider—a full-length documentary that follows Australian Ben Felten as he units out to interrupt the world land velocity report for a blind motorcyclist. Directed by Belgian filmmaker Eva Küpper with breathtaking cinematography by Carl Rottiers, it’s a must-watch.
Ben and Eva are in attendance, as is Ben’s crew chief, Paul. They area a sequence of wonderful questions from one other deeply engaged viewers after the screening.
Sunday is noticeably quieter because the occasion begins to wind down. First up is a reside screening of the French MotoGP (the primary time I’ve watched motorbike racing in a cinema). As a South African, I naturally cheer loudly as Brad Binder passes Portuguese celebrity Miguel Oliveira; my Portuguese mates are usually not impressed.
The day winds down with extra brief movies (largely native productions screened in Portuguese). All through the weekend, friendships have been shaped, artwork was digested (after which fiercely debated), seafood was consumed, and bikes have been ridden.
As I devour one other plate of pasta from the pizzeria down the highway from my lodge (I largely ate Italian meals in Portugal, go determine), I resolve to attend the 2025 working of the Lisbon Motorbike Movie Competition. See you there?
Photos by @paclopes | With because of the Lisbon Motorbike Movie Competition
