Film: Postcard from Lisbon

"Hollywood is running out of ideas. Come to IndieLisboa to see something new!"

The provocative "manifesto" for the 10th anniversary of Lisbon's International Independent Film Festival - which ends today - is a witty, eye-catching way of driving home what "indie" is all about: a cutting-edge, unconventional, creative and surprise-filled festival that has become a beacon for independent cinema.

Co-founder and director Nuno Sena has good reason to be proud of this year's programme. "When I started this project with my colleagues Miguel Valverde and Rui Pereira, we never thought it could go so far," he says. "If the festival is still alive today, despite the economic crisis, it is because we have given the Portuguese audience a kind of cinema that has never reached local theatres before."

Looking back over the festival's history, Sena especially treasures the visits of filmmakers such as Brazil's Julio Bressane, Japan's Shinji Aoyama and the mainland's Jia Zhangke. Hong Kong's Johnnie To Kei-fung, with his distinctive and original style, perfectly corresponds with the spirit of IndieLisboa.

"The full retrospectives we dedicated to these masters, previously unknown to the Portuguese public, significantly shaped the identity of the event … Equally influential were young filmmakers such as the Safdie brothers [Ben and Josh], with their successful Go Get Some Rosemary in 2010, and [French-born] Marie Losier, who deeply impressed with The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye, [her 2011 documentary] on artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and his collaborator wife," Sena says.

Three concepts summarise IndieLisboa's vision, he says. "Independence is the festival's core idea, firstly because we believe it is important to think and work without restrictions of any kind, and secondly because we support independent cinema.