Biography

Mário Vaz Almeida is a researcher, filmmaker and PhD candidate in Artistic Studies, Art, and Mediation at NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities, with the research project ‘Cabo Verde e os cabo-verdianos no Cinema Português’ [Cape Verde and Cape Verdeans in Portuguese Cinema]. He graduated in Communication Sciences (Audiovisual and Interactive Media) from the same university and specialised in the field of Audiovisual and Documentary Writing at the University of the Basque Country. He extended his interdisciplinary training to the marketing sector, acquiring skills in analysis and operationalisation in online digital media.

His intellectual and artistic interests focus on literature and cinema. His activities and productions include both the publication of academic articles and the making of fiction films and documentaries. In terms of professional and academic activity, he worked as a lecturer/university assistant for 14 years at the three largest universities in Cape Verde, publishing articles on audiovisual media and Cape Verdean cinema in university journals and academic platforms. He gave an important lecture at the AVANCA 2013 International Film Conference (Portugal) entitled “Contemporary Cinema in Cape Verde”. He is the author of the essay “A Cultura Audiovisual em Cabo Verde” [Audiovisual Culture in Cape Verde], published in book form by Livraria Pedro Cardoso in 2016.

Research fields

• Cinema
• Culture
• Audiovisual
• Contemporary history

Selected publications

• Almeida, Mário Vaz. Cultura audiovisual em Cabo Verde. Praia: Livraria Pedro Cardoso, 2016.
• Almeida, Mário Vaz, “Fintar o destino, de Fernando Vendrell: : a afirmação de uma identidade pós-colonial do homem cabo-verdiano,” in Errâncias de um imaginário : entre o Brasil, Cabo Verde e Portugal, organised by Celeste Natário, Cícero Cunha Bezerra, Elter Manuel Carlos and Renato Epifânio, 337-346. Porto: Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, 2015. [link] 🔓

Main projects

• Researcher in the project ‘FILMASPORA — Popular Diaspora Films: Towards a New Cine-Geography of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area‘ — Coordinated by Catarina Laranjeiro (IHC — NOVA FCSH) and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (2023.11438.PEX, https://doi.org/10.54499/2023.11438.PEX). 2025-2026
• “Cabo Verde e os cabo-verdianos no Cinema Português” [Cape Verde and Cape Verdeans in Portuguese cinema] — PhD thesis to be presented to the NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities, supervised by Catarina Laranjeiro (IHC — NOVA FCSH). Individual PhD project funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (PALOP/BD/155070/2024). 2024-