https://cnnportugal.iol.pt/geral/morreu-joao-canijo/20260129/697bdd43d34e0ec52ec2e85e
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sheetsadam1 — 2 months ago(January 30, 2026 02:21 AM)
https://cnnportugal.iol.pt/geral/morreu-joao-canijo/20260129/697bdd43d34e0ec52ec2e85e
João Canijo, aged 68, has died. The Portuguese filmmaker was found dead at home, according to CNN Portugal.
Speaking to Lusa news agency, the production company Midas Filmes stated that the director died near Vila Viçosa, in the Évora district, where he usually divided his time between home and Lisbon. The cause of death was not disclosed.
João Canijo, who turned 68 last December, was finalizing his latest film project, "Encenação," as well as filming, about two weeks ago, a related play.
João Manuel Altavilla Canijo was born in 1957 in Porto, where he attended the History course at the Faculty of Arts between 1978 and 1980, discovering his passion for cinema soon after. He began his career as an assistant director to Manoel de Oliveira, Wim Wenders, Alain Tanner, and Werner Schroeter, among others, as recalled by the authors of an interview conducted for the project "New & Old Trends in Contemporary Portuguese Cinema" by the Higher School of Theatre and Cinema, published in 2011.
In 1988, he directed his first feature film, "Three Minus Me," followed by the television series "Alentejo Without Law." Since then, he has also worked in film production management, staged plays, and made a series of feature films imbued with themes from Portuguese society over the last 40 years, observed from within family contexts and featuring strong female characters.
Examples of this work of observing reality through fiction are the films "Black Shoes" (1998), "Get a Life" (2001), "Misbegotten" (2007), "Blood of My Blood" (2011) or "Bad Living" and "Living Bad" (2023).
"Bad Living" earned him the Silver Bear, the jury prize at the Berlin Film Festival, in 2023, the same year he also received a career achievement award at the Cineuropa film festival in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. It was Portugal's submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
In his latest project, "Encenação," João Canijo reunited with a cast of actresses who had appeared in many of his previous films, namely Rita Blanco, Anabela Moreira, Beatriz Batarda, and Cleia Almeida, who were joined by Miguel Guilherme.
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