Rafael Fonseca

Born in Faro (1996), Rafael Silvestre Fonseca is a director, screenwriter, producer and film critic. He holds a degree in Communication Sciences from the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences (FCSH) at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and undertook an internship at the National Moving Image Archive – the Portuguese Film Archive, before going on to complete a professional course in Film and Television Directing at World Academy.

Over the past seven years, he has been working simultaneously in television, film and theatre, starting his career as an assistant director and going on to work as a digital image technician (DIT) on streaming series and other Portuguese drama productions (the “Morangos com Açúcar” remake, “Lisbon Noir” and “Playback”). In theatre, he worked as an assistant director for two years with the O Fim do Teatro company, whilst also producing video segments and full recordings of these and other productions.

He is also a film critic and essayist, with articles published on the Portuguese websites “Tribuna do Cinema” and “À Pala de Walsh”, as well as in the international magazines “Talking Shorts”, “Little White Lies” and “Filmmaker Magazine”. He was one of the Talents Rio 2025 at the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival.

His first film, “Quorum” — produced with financial support from the ICA — premiered in 2025 at the Montanha – Ilha do Pico Festival and at the Cinemateca Portuguesa. The film was subsequently shown on RTP’s “Cinemax” programme and is now available on Filmin.