Since its creation in 2004, IndieLisboa – International Independent Film Festival, located in Lisbon, Portugal believes in creation and in the author. Dreams with cinema as an exceptional example of expression in art and commits itself to defend images and sound as an unique voice in the current world. So, narrative is as important as non-narrative, the fusion of the notion of documentary and fiction is concrete and animation should lead us beyond technique, imagination or limit. And this led us into “experimental”. First we had a special section in the Festival called “Laboratory” where we screened the most radical and unclassifiable works, which overcame genre and format and explored what we thought were the new territories in filmmaking, in which the directors worked in absolute freedom. But then we decided to close this section and spread this idea for the all festival contaminating all sections. Since that key moment, we could manage to give audiences what they don’t receive when they go to a regular cinema: a unique experience, either because of emotion, or because of the strangeness, or simply because of the originality. And we were succeeded, captivating a regular audience of 45.000 spectators, being in current days the Portuguese most attended festival.
We congratulate the new born festival, Bucharest Experimental Film Festival, believing that it will be absolutely fundamental his existence in order that Romanian Cinema starts questioning itself and go on forward solidifying  his key position worldwide.

Miguel Valverde, Co-director of IndieLisboa - International Independent Film Festival

CURATOR OF CARTE BLANCHE INDIELISBOA: MIGUEL VALVERDE
Born in 1971, Miguel Valverde  is one of the directors and programmers of IndieLisboa - International Independent Film Festival, which he helped to create in 2003. He also teaches Scriptwriting for Comics, Illustration and Animation Film at CIEAM – in the University of Fine Arts in Lisbon, Scriptwriting for Fiction Films in Nextart School and Copyright Law in Restart, School of Creativity and New Technologies.
He attended also the courses and workshops of Script and Dramaturgy of Image in the Cervantes Institute and Screenwriting for Audiovisual and Multimedia in ETIC.
Between 1997 and 2004 he programmed short films for Algarve International Film Festival (FICA), Skopje International Film Festival (Macedonia), Restart, School of Creativity and New Technologies (Portugal), where he was also the responsible for communication and for Zero em Comportamento – Cultural Association (Portugal).
He was jury of several film festivals, namely in the Cork International Film Festival (Ireland), Motovun Film Festival (Croatia), Arcipelago – Festival Internazionale di Cortometraggi (Roma, Itália), Curto Circuito Film Festival (Santiago de Compostela, Espanha) etc. He took part in the ICAM juries for the Production of Short and Medium Animation Films Support System in 2004 and currently he is also a permanent member of ICA's commission that decides over the subventions to the national film industry.
Participated as panelist in several national and international seminars about short films, film promotion and organization of film festivals.