to Jun 4 | MARIONETTE FESTIVAL | International Festival of Puppetry and Animated Forms | Lisboa

Lisbon loves marionettes so much that we have a museum dedicated to them. This festival celebrating all things puppet- and animation-related, meanwhile, plays out at several theaters across the city, with many shows playing for free, and quite a few — but not all — suitable for kids. There are movies galore, from classics such as The Neverending Story to new creations fresh off the filmmaking lot, as well as masterclasses, and more.

You can download and/or print this handy flyer (which doesn’t include all that’s happening) or consult the website at https://tarumba.pt/2023/en/fimfa.

From the organizers:

“FIMFA Lx – International Festival of Puppetry and Animated Forms is one of the most important festivals of puppetry and theatre in Portugal. Running since 2001, the festival is programmed and produced annually by the puppet company A Tarumba – Teatro de Marionetas.

FIMFA Lx is an artistic project, open to new tendencies, of international dimension presenting an artistic and technical high-level programme, with a very contemporary point of view. The Festival won the 2010 Critics Award given by the Portuguese Association of Theatre Critics, and the artistic directors, Luís Vieira and Rute Ribeiro, received the Personality Award 2013, by their work on the festival.

Since its first edition, confront and innovation are characteristics of this event, by presenting a programme that combines the newest technologies with the most traditional puppet companies, and projects with very elemental techniques, performed in an experimental and contemporary way.

The Festival aims to introduce different styles of puppetry and an artistic transversality by presenting a big diversity of techniques (shadows, objects, full-view manipulation, visual theatre, etc.), to the Portuguese audience, and to be a moment of shared experiences to artists and performers. 

In each edition, FIMFA intends to bring together the interest of artists, critics and theatre programmers, creating relations between directors and public, arts and languages, theatre and schools, universities and institutions.

Each year are invited a wide range of international companies, from all around the world, to perform in the best theatres of Lisbon, that are also our partners, like the Teatro Teatro São Luiz or Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, among other spaces.

Welcome to the world of puppetry, an art with no boundaries!”