Regina Pessoa

Regina Pessoa was born in 1969 in Coimbra, Portugal. In 1992, she embarked on her career in animation film by working at Filmógrafo, a production company in Porto. There she worked as an animator, and collaborated on three shorts by Abi Feijo: Os Salteadores/The Brigands (1993), Fado Lusitanio (1995) and Clandestino/Clandestine (2000). In 1999, she made her first short film, A Noite/Night, using the difficult technique of engraving on plaster. A Noite/Night won awards in several festivals. She continued with Historia tragica com final feliz/Tragic Story With Happy Ending (2005), co-produced by the French studio Folimage, the Portuguese studio Ciclope Filmes and the National Film Board of Canada. The filmmaker has been technically innovative with her ink drawings scratched on to glossy paper. Tragic Story with Happy Ending garnered many awards, including grand prizes at the Festival d’Annecy (France) and at the SICAF in Seoul (Korea), as well as special jury prizes at Trebon (Czech Republic), Hiroshima (Japan) and Espinho (Portugal). —films.nfb.ca