World Premiere!!

Thrilled to announce that Ebb Tide, the new short film by Bruno Carnide | Portugal, Spain | 2026 | 13′ is officially selected in the Panorama Competition at the 24th edition of Tirana International Film Festival 2026, that will take place in Tirana from 21st to 27th of September.

The screening will be World Premiere and Bruno Carnide will present the film personally.

Tirana International Film Festival is a qualifying event for the Oscar and EFA Awards.

Ebb Tide, aka Maré Vaza, is a coproduction between Portugal & Spain (Basque country) starring the incomparable Sérgio Praia, who moves you with his acting.

Synopsis:

The waters of the Lagoon hide stories, mysteries and torments. They unveil life and hide death to the taste of the tides. A man lives tortured by memories. And when life dresses itself in anguish without answers, the water may unveil them.

Bruno Carnide about Ebb Tide:

«Ebb Tide» arises following the first intensive artistic residency, organized and produced by Shortcutz Ovar, at the School of Arts and Crafts of Ovar (Portugal).
With the objective of creating an original short film and transforming Ovar into a film set, ten participants were chosen, from among more than 50 applications, to for four days integrate the team composed by Bruno Carnide (direction), Cátia Biscaia (screenplay), Tiago Iúri (direction of photography), Sérgio Praia and Tobias Monteiro (cast), and Ana Castro and Tiago Alves (production).
Four days to think, write, produce and film a short film that could manage to represent the imagery and imaginary of the Lagoon of Aveiro, turned into an exhaustive, intense and, at the same time, highly gratifying task, taking into account the learnings and experiences absorbed in those days.
There were some premises on the table: two actors and one child (non-actor), alongside all the territory and possibilities that Ovar could offer. And, several hypotheses having been launched by the participants, the screenwriter transformed them into a painful story of loss, suffering and anguish, which the metaphor of water accompanies, representing that emotional depth and turbulence, functioning as a mirror of the internal reflections of the torments that the character goes through.
«Ebb Tide» tells, then, the story of a man who lives tormented by the absence of his daughter. And, here, the director chooses to tell this narrative through silence and contemplation, intermingling in the images several key-elements that characterize Ovar, such as the lagoon and its professions, the boats, the beach, the landscapes stripped bare in winter, and the sounds of the tides, wood, and conch shells, which serve as the basis for the entire film’s soundtrack.
Water appears as the central element of the entire narrative and it is the lagoon that leads us through this story. The lagoon washes, purifies and feeds, but also, takes away. Almost like a duality between life and death. And whoever lives by the water ends up feeling this fear and clamor, constantly, struggling in a paradoxical way within himself.
That which was born as a simple experience, ended up transfiguring itself into an intense and harrowing story, whose pain knows no time and extends beyond a single generation. More than narrating events, one seeks here to give shape to that which is felt, letting the images speak and reveal Ovar under another gaze. The gaze of one who stops, listens and imagines the countless stories that, in silence, will have crossed those waters.

Bruno Carnide is a member of the Academy of Hollywood AMPAS and has been nominated twice by the Portuguese Film Academy for the Sophia Awards.

Bruno Carnide is currently working on his first feature film, and we’ll be sharing more details about it early next year.

Stay tuned, as we’ll be announcing further successes for this star of Portuguese cinema very soon.

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