Title: Ebb Tide
Original Title: Maré Vaza
Director: Bruno Carnide
Producer: Tiago Alves, Ana Castro
Country: Portugal, Spain
Running time: 13’20”
Language: Portuguese
Year: 2026
Genre & Subgenre: Fiction, Drama, Mistery, Family, Suspense, Psychological

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.

Director’s Statement
«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.

Director’s Biography
Bruno Carnide, nominated twice for the Sophia Awards of the Portuguese Film Academy, is an independent portuguese director and founding director of Leiria Film Fest – International Short Film Festival, since 2013.
He has directed fiction, animation and documentary short films, which won dozens awards and have been exhibited in hundreds film festivals around the world, including qualifying festivals for the Oscars and European Film Awards such as ZINEBI (Spain), InterFilm Berlin (Germany), Huesca (Spain), Izmir (Turkey), CineLebu (Chile), Drama (Greece), Tirana (Albania) or St. Louis (U.S.A.).
With a Specialist Title in Film Production, Bruno Carnide is a professor in the field of Cinema at Polytechnic University of Leiria (Portugal).
He was curator at Museum of the Moving Image (Portugal), between 2022 and 2024, and is frequently a member of the jury at International Film Festivals.
As a freelancer, Bruno Carnide has directed hundreds of corporate and commercial videos for companies such as Google, Volkswagen, Ford, MTV, Nickelodeon, Portuguese Television or Schweppes.
His filmography includes the short films “Memories of an Empty House” (2023), “Fled. Lay. Fell.” (2017), both shot on 8mm film, and the animated short film “The Flight of the Manta Rays” (2021).