António da Cunha Telles

António Cohen da Cunha Telles is a Portuguese film director and producer. He was born on February 26, 1935 in Funchal, Madeira. He studied Medicine at the University of Lisbon. He went to Paris in 1956 where he studied film-making at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinematographiques (IDHEC). He graduated in 1961 and returned to Portugal where he ran a newspaper called Imagens de Portugal (Images of Portugal) and was administrator for the Cinema Services of State Entities.

His directing career debuted with the documentary Os Transportes (1962). Soon afterwards he became one of the top names of the Portuguese New Cinema (Novo Cinema) movement. He produced Os Verdes Anos (1963) by Paulo Rocha and Belarmino (1964) by Fernando Lopes.

In 1970, Cunha Telles directed his first feature-film, O Cerco. Meanwhile, he established a distribution company called Animatógrafo that was responsible for a revolutianary new type of cinema as never before seen in Portugal. Eisenstein, Tanner, Jorge Sanjines, Littín, Glauber Rocha, Vigo, Gilles Carle, Karmitz, among others, became popular names in Portuguese cinematography thanks to  Cunha Telles.

During the 1970s Telles directed three films: Meus Amigos (1974), Continuar a Viver (1976) and As Armas e o Povo (1975). By the end of the decade, Cunha Telles was heading the Portuguese Cinema Institute and Tobis Portuguesa.

Eventually, Cunha Telle’s  distribution company ended up being divided into two branches: a distribution division headed by Renée Gagnon presently called Marfilmes, and a production division currently called Filmes de Fundo headed by Cunha Telles and his daughter Pandora da Cunha Telles. Filmes do Fundo is committed to Telles’ own productions as well as production of foreign films, which are partially shot in Portugal. The most recent films directed by Cunha Telles are Vidas (1984), Pandora (1996) and, more recently, Kiss Me (2004).

As a producer and co-producer, Cunha Telles is responsible for more than 200 titles and has earned an Oscar for Portuguese Cinema History - "Belle Epoque" by Fernando Trueba and an Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture.