Portuguese director, producer, photographer, professor, and cultural programmer. He completed a degree in Filmmaking after studying Machine Engineering. He is a co-founder of Companhia Teatro Meridional, where he was responsible for the film and audiovisual department. Between Barcelona, Lyon, Sitges, Budapest, Lisbon, and Florence, he participated in courses and workshops on film, photography, video, theater, and creative writing. He received scholarships from several institutions – Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Universidade de Ciências de Lisboa, Pépenières, and Visions - Documentary European Course. He has been invited to participate in national and international conferences. He has served as a juror in photography, theater, design, dance, and film competitions and festivals, most notably the Instituto Cinema e Audiovisual (ICA). He was also a co-founder of Avanti.pt - Cinema and Audiovisual Association and Apordoc - Documentary Association. He is a member of the Portuguese Association of Filmmakers, co-artistic director of the Vo'Arte Association, and a consultant for other artistic and educational associations and projects. For the past 25 years, he has dedicated himself simultaneously to the field of pedagogy, creating and directing laboratories dedicated to creation and experimentation, both documentary and fictional. He was a visiting professor at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema (ESTC), Forum Dança (dance), Instituto Piaget, Escola Ana Wilson, Glasgow Film and Video Workshop (GFVW), Centro Em Movimento (C.E.M.), and ETIC (School of Technologies, Creation, and Innovation). In addition to being a professor and project coordinator, he assumed responsibility for the Image and Sound Area, professional and technical education, designing courses and creating pedagogical and artistic projects with an authorial dimension. He was Creative Director of ETIC and is a pedagogical coordinator. He is a consultant in the reform of artistic education coordinated by the Ministry of Education. He is a researcher at CLEPUL - Center for Lusophone and European Literatures and Cultures and a doctoral candidate in performing arts and moving images at the University of Lisbon (UL). His latest film, "Geografia Humana" premiered.
Rui Ramos was born in Paris in 1971. He has higher education studies in law, marketing and tourism promotion. Founding member and Executive Director of AO NORTE – Association of Audiovisual Production and Animation. Film Festival Production Director OF ENCONTROS/ Festival de Cinema e Viana (2001-2025) and MDOC – Melgaço International Documentary Film Festival (2014-2025). Artistic director and Head of Programming at Festafife - International Puppetry Theatre Festival and Animation Cinema (2007-2011). Manager and Producer of FORA DE CAMPO FILMES – Limited Responsibility Cooperative (C.R.L.). Founder and coordinator of Minho Film Commission. Technical Director of BIG – Guimarães Illustration Biennial. Rui also works as a consultant in the field of Tourism and is an impresario.
Miguel Arieira (1987) holds a degree (2010) in Audiovisual Communication Technology (field of video), by Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espectaculo, Polytechnic Institut of Porto. Since 2010 he has participated in freelance projects for cinema, television and advertising. Miguel has collaborated with AO NORTE since 2012, participating in the production and directing of documentaries and audiovisual content, the organization of film festivals, as well as in formative work in schools.
Sara Oliveira was born in Porto in 1974 — a city that has shaped her ever since. She holds a degree in International Journalism from the Porto School of Journalism and a postgraduate in Cultural Tourism from Universidade Portucalense, Infante D. Henrique. Driven by stories, places, people and narratives, Sara has always followed her curiosity. She lived through the freedom and big utopias of the 1980s, worked as a journalist when notepads and tape recorders still ruled the newsroom, and "surfed" the first wave of the internet in Portugal. She was part of the team behind one of the country’s first major web indexers - AEIOU - back when Google wasn’t even cool yet. Later, she plunged into the world of press advisory and media consultancy, collaborating on ambitious projects in Culture, Tourism, and the Environment. Between words, ideas and causes, she continues to write, think about culture, and communicate projects and visions that enrich and inspire transformation.
