Personal Info
Birth date
1952-01-01 (73 Years)
Gender
Female
Known for
Directing
Place of birth
Lisbon, Portugal
Also known as
Rita Azevedo
Rita Azevedo Gomes
Biography
Rita Azevedo Gomes (born c. 1952) is an award-winning Portuguese film director. Her career dates from the early 70s and spans cinema, theatre and opera. In 2001 she presented her work in various film festivals including Venice, Montreal, and Turin. Altar (2002) won the prize for best director at the Angra do Heroísmo international film festival and premiered in Portugal in September 2002. This was followed in 2004 by A 15ª Pedra: Manoel de Oliveira e João Bénard da Costa em Conversa Filmada, which was shown at the Marseille, Procida and Doclisboa film festivals in 2005, as well in The Ancient Art Museum and Serralves Foundation. Also in 2005, she was commissioned by Faro Capital da Cultura to direct The Conquest of Faro, which was presented at the 2005 Turin Film Festival and had its national premiere in Faro in December 2005. A Colecção Invisível (The Invisible Collection, 2009) will have its premier in Lisbon at the Cinemateca Portuguesa. Her most recent film, A Portuguesa (The Portuguese), inspired in Robert Musil’s novel Die Portugiesin, is in post-production.
Filmography
Altar
7
Overview:
In this lyrical elegy lamenting the death of Madeleine, her husband, a theater actor, relives his very first memories of her.Francisca
7.219
Overview:
The life of a young man, son of an English officer who lets himself become a prisoner of love resulting in fatalism and disgrace.The Rose King
6.9
Overview:
A mentally unstable woman and her son move to a sprawling mansion in Portugal to grow roses.The Invisible Collection
5.7
Overview:
A story about art and educated men, and how their art and culture reveal themselves useless in the face of the harsh realities of the 20th century life.Danses Macabres, Skeletons, and Other Fantasies
5.3
Overview:
Two film directors and a writer are in Portugal for an expedition through various images, moments from the history of Western allegorical representation. The writer is Jean-Louis Schefer, and this tale encapsulates his life’s mission.What Now? Remind Me
5.778
Overview:
Joaquim Pinto has been living with HIV and VHC for almost twenty years. “What now? Remind Me” is the notebook of a year of clinical studies with toxic, mind altering drugs as yet unapproved. An open and eclectic reflection on time and memory, on epidemics and globalization, on survival beyond all expectations, on dissent and absolute love. In a to-and-fro between present and past memories, the film is also a tribute to friends departed and those who remain.The 15th Stone
6.5
Overview:
Joáo Bénard da Costa, director of the Portuguese National Film Archives [deceased in 2009], interviews the dean of contemporaneous film directors [96-years-old then]. Two humanists of different philosophical backgrounds, both with their long, entire lives dedicated to culture in general (music, painting, literature) and to film in particular, discuss freely, sometimes haltingly, the director's power as a creator or a magician, the philosophy beyond particular scenes in classic movies, film technique, the importance of color, sound and music to films, art versus entertainment, and much more. Their talk takes place in a museum room, seating in front of "The Annunciation" (a 1510 oil painting by João Vaz, a Portuguese artist), which eventually leads to a discussion of 'Leonardo da Vinci', and the relationship between a trend-setter master and his disciples.The Portuguese Woman
6.4
Overview:
North of Italy, the von Kettens dispute the forces of the Episcopate of Trent. Herr Ketten seeks marriage in a distant country, Portugal. After their honeymoon journey back home, Ketten leaves again for the war. Eleven years elapsed… Rumours are running about the presence of that 'foreigner' in the castle. Some say she's a heretic. Until one day, the Bishop of Trento ends up dying and, with the signature of peace, falls the background of von Ketten's life. Will the Portuguese win, where death seems to be moving in?Fuck the Polis
NYR
Overview:
Twenty years ago, believing she was doomed, Irma took a trip to Greece. Today, she retraces that journey, accompanied by three young men. From island to island, between sky and sea, the travelers read, listen and live, carried by a longing for beauty and clarity.A Woman's Revenge
6.208
Overview:
Roberto is one of those men to whom simulation has become the greatest art. He is an unmoved, inscrutable, mysterious man. But the truth is that Robert feels an intimate, deep tedium. The boredom of those who have already exhausted all the pleasures of life. The only thing still surprising him is the fact that nothing surprises him anymore. One evening he has an overwhelming encounter with a woman. For his own bewilderment, he discovers the sublime horrors in which the woman has sank.Fragile as the World
7.5
Overview:
An impossible love. Two young people who love each other. Vera and João can’t find in this life the space, time, or identity to resolve their love story.The Kegelstatt Trio
NYR
Overview:
Paul and Adèle were once lovers and separated but are still good friends, one year after everything seems to take them away from each other. The key of E-flat may be the key of true friendship, but it is Mozart that pushes them apart...D. Jaime ou a Noite Portuguesa
7
Overview:
This is one of Noronha da Costa's films in which the "fictional" component is most visible. D. Jaime or the Portuguese Night, like the rest of Noronha da Costa's films, is part of the gothic films (Terence Fisher's work was one of his great influences), and in it he shows the different variations around the "specular bodies", which evolve into luminous magic and into sensual and sensory incandescence. At the same time, we witness a series of ironic and erotic, or historical, views of wicked virgins and laughable sadists, all resurrected from German and British romanticism, while the scenery is no longer Portuguese.The Sound of the Shaking Earth
6.6
Overview:
Freely based on Gide ('Paludes') and Hawthorne ('Wakefield'), this is a film about a writer who never wrote anything and who blows at nightfall the breath of frost. The poem by Carlos Queiroz to which the above sentences belong is not cited in 'O som da Terra a Tremer', but the atmosphere is that, between written letters never received. Fiction within fiction, stories within stories, like those Chinese boxes in which there is always one inside another. Or the two margins of the same river, always being lateral.O Construtor de Anjos
9
Overview:
Gothic film in a monastery, where sensual monks murder the children they receive, with images of fantastic, painted from the author own painting and also from the Hammer films and the Saxon plastic tradition of romanticism.Correspondences
6.6
Overview:
Jorge de Sena was forced to leave his country. First he moved to Brazil, and later to the USA. He never returned to Portugal. During his 20-year-long exile, he kept an epistolary correspondence with Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen. These letters are a testimony of the profound friendship between the two poets, letters of longing and of desire to “fill years of distance with hours of conversation”. Through excerpts and verses, a dialog is established, revealing their divergent opinions but mostly their strong bond, and their efforts to preserve it until their last breaths.Notre mariage
1
Overview:
A sickly young girl is given away by her father to a childless couple. Twenty years later, she marries her adopted father.Life Lasts Two Days
NYR
Overview:
Rómulo's quiet routine in Rio de Janeiro changes overnight when an accident starts a wave of absurd events. Far from there, Orlando, his twin brother and rare works dealer tries to buy the book of a Brazilian student with financial problems. The twins' lives will be on a collision course with the arrival of a mysterious manuscript.o Ah! das coisas. o pecado de João Palolo
NYR
Overview:
Short film released through the Gestos & Fragmentos platform during the COVID-19 quarantine.Karl Martin
NYR
Overview:
An “artist film” that crosses Karl Martin, Martin Heidegger and the Communist Party’s Manifesto.O Ah! das coisas, 21 de Abril 2020
NYR
Overview:
Short film released through the Gestos & Fragmentos platform during the COVID-19 quarantine.The Conquest of Faro
5.5
Overview:
Arriving in a hotel in the city of Faro, a couple learns there are no available tables left. When another couple agrees to share a table, they spark a conversation on the city’s history, unfolding the tales of King Afonso III, who betrays his wife, and of a Moorish woman, who betrays her father.A Portuguese Film
NYR
Overview:
A documentary about the world of portuguese cinema, with interviews with some critics and directors.o Ah! das coisas. “Um dia voltei ao quarto…”
NYR
Overview:
Short film released through the Gestos & Fragmentos platform during the COVID-19 quarantine.Acting
2025Fuck the Polis as Unknown
2022Life Lasts Two Days as Unknown
2019Danses Macabres, Skeletons, and Other Fantasies as Unknown
2018Principiantes as Unknown
2014What Now? Remind Me as Self
2011A Portuguese Film as Herself
2006No Tempo do Cinema as Herself
1978O Construtor de Anjos as Unknown
1974Karl Martin as Unknown
Directing
2025Fuck the Polis ... Director
2022The Kegelstatt Trio ... Director
2020o Ah! das coisas. o pecado de João Palolo ... Director
2020o Ah! das coisas. “Nos quartos das freiras não há espelhos.” ... Director
2020o Ah! das coisas. “Um dia voltei ao quarto…” ... Director
2020O Ah! das coisas, 6 de Abril 2020 ... Director
2020O Ah! das coisas, 21 de Abril 2020 ... Director
2019Danses Macabres, Skeletons, and Other Fantasies ... Director
2019The Portuguese Woman ... Director
2016Correspondences ... Director
2012A Woman's Revenge ... Director
2009The Invisible Collection ... Director
2007The 15th Stone ... Director
2005The Conquest of Faro ... Director
2003Altar ... Director
2001Fragile as the World ... Director
1990The Sound of the Shaking Earth ... Director
1978O Construtor de Anjos ... Assistant Director
1974D. Jaime ou a Noite Portuguesa ... Assistant Director
1974Karl Martin ... Assistant Director
Writing
2025Fuck the Polis ... Writer
2022The Kegelstatt Trio ... Writer
2019The Portuguese Woman ... Screenplay
2016Correspondences ... Writer
2012A Woman's Revenge ... Screenplay
2009The Invisible Collection ... Writer
2007The 15th Stone ... Idea
2003Altar ... Writer
2001Fragile as the World ... Screenplay
1990The Sound of the Shaking Earth ... Writer
Production
2025Fuck the Polis ... Producer
2019Danses Macabres, Skeletons, and Other Fantasies ... Producer
2019The Portuguese Woman ... Producer
2009The Invisible Collection ... Producer
2003Altar ... Producer
Camera
2025Fuck the Polis ... Director of Photography
Editing
2025Fuck the Polis ... Editor
2022The Kegelstatt Trio ... Editor
2019The Portuguese Woman ... Editor
2016Correspondences ... Editor
2007The 15th Stone ... Editor
2005The Conquest of Faro ... Editor
Art
1986The Rose King ... Set Decoration