João Mário Grilo

National Correspondent

Class
Letters

Section
9th Section | Communication and Arts

Election

21.06.2022 (Corresponding Member)

Profile

João Mário Grilo (born in 1958, Figueira da Foz, Portugal) is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, NOVA University of Lisbon. He holds a degree in Sociology from ISCTE and an MA, PhD, and Aggregation in Communication Sciences/Cinema from NOVA. At IFILNOVA, he has coordinated CineLab since its foundation.

His research focuses on film directing, artistic studies, and the relationship between cinema and other arts. He has published extensively in Portugal and abroad, authoring books such as The Order in Cinema (1997), Lessons in Cinema (2006), and Film & Philosophy: Mapping an Encounter (2014), the latter developed as part of an FCT-funded research project (2009–2013). Since 2014, he has coordinated the PhD in Artistic Studies – Art and Mediations, the first FCT-funded PhD in Arts.

João Mário Grilo has served on evaluation committees for institutions such as the Portuguese Agency for Higher Education Accreditation, the Gulbenkian Foundation, the EC’s Media II Program, and the European Research Council. He has also worked with international evaluation bodies, including the Lithuanian Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education.

As a filmmaker, he directed his first feature film, Maria, in 1978, followed by The Foreigner (1982), The King’s Trial (1989), The End of the World (1993), The Eyes of Asia (1996), and Field of Blood (2021/2022), among others. His documentaries explore cinema’s intersections with literature, architecture, and visual arts, such as Saramago: Documents (1994), The Flying Carpet (2008), and VieirArpad (2019/2020).

João Mário Grilo has represented Portugal in major film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Toronto. He received the Georges Sadoul Prize (1982), the Special Jury Prize in Rio de Janeiro, and the PROCIREP Prize in Cannes. He has also curated film programs for the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Portuguese Cinematheque.

Currently, he is one of the Principal Investigators responsible for implementing the new NOVA Institute of Arts and Technologies within the European Consortium T-Factor, funded by Horizon 2020 and the Lisbon Regional Operational Program.