Photography: PSFF
The 2026 edition of the Portuguese Surf Film Festival (PSFF) will take place from July 17 to 31 under the theme “15 Years – 15 Days.” More than thirty films from around the world will explore surfing in all its dimensions, celebrating the art of cinema in a vibrant showcase.
Ahead of the festival, PSFF will host a special premiere event at the Hurley Surf Club in Ericeira on July 11. From 8:30 p.m, guests will be welcomed with a Welcome Drink and a DJ Set. The evening will also mark the official presentation of the festival programme, giving attendees the first opportunity to receive the festival catalogue and full schedule of the event that has been bringing the very best in surf cinema to Ericeira since 2012.
To close the evening in true PSFF spirit, the short documentary “Rán: A Scandinavian Surfing Saga” will be screened at 9:30 p.m. Directed by Morgan Maassen, the film follows Swedish surfer Freddie Meadows over the course of ten years as he embarks on an extraordinary journey to discover, map and surf the icy, remote waves of the Baltic Sea and the Arctic Circle.
Among the highlights of the 2026 Official Selection are “SurFilMusic” (2026), directed by Emmett Malloy, which explores Jack Johnson’s journey, from surfer to filmmaker and ultimately to internationally acclaimed musician; and “On the Wave” (2025), directed by Axel Gerdau and Peter Wolf, following the life and career of Sebastian Steudtner, the current world record holder for the largest wave ever surfed. Both films will receive two festival screenings: “SurFilMusic” on July 22 and 30, and “On the Wave” on July 23 and 28. Around ten filmmakers are expected to attend the festival and take to the stage at the Casa de Cultura Jaime Lobo e Silva, where audiences will have the opportunity to participate in Q&A sessions following the screenings. Tickets are now available.
This year, the Portuguese Surf Film Festival will once again offer three free screenings: two on Ericeira’s beaches (Praia dos Pescadores on July 18, and Ribeira d’Ilhas on July 26) and another at Palácio dos Marqueses, in Mafra, on the festival’s final day.
This year, the Portuguese Surf Film Festival once again dedicates the Orlando Morais Gallery, at Ericeira’s Casa de Cultura, to an Ocean Art exhibition.
Bringing together works by eleven artists, the exhibition will open on July 17 at the Orlando Morais Gallery in the Casa de Cultura Jaime Lobo e Silva, and will remain on display until July 26. Visitors will be invited to vote for their favourite artwork, with prizes awarded to the winning artist. Full details of the competition will be announced on the festival’s Instagram account: @surffilm.
In a text entitled “Ocean Art 2026: Fifteen Years of Crossings,” curator Bibiana Rigoli writes: “Fifteen years ago, we discovered that art, like the sea, does not ask permission to transform. It arrives, settles in, changes the landscape, and follows its own course, leaving its mark on those who encounter it. This edition is a retrospective, a moment to pause and look back at all the tides that have brought us here. Time, like the ocean, is not measured in a straight line. It moves forward and back, brings and takes away, repeats and reinvents itself. Over the past fifteen years, we have seen different currents converge in this village: voices, techniques, origins, and urgencies. Every artist who has passed through here has brought with them a unique piece of the sea, and together they have created something greater, an expanding archipelago of meanings.
That is this year’s invitation: to see the journey not as a path already travelled, but as a crossing still in progress. Eleven artists, from different backgrounds and life paths, now come together around one shared certainty: that art saves. It saves because it crosses borders that language cannot reach. It saves because it transforms pain into form, silence into image, and distance into encounter. It saves because, like the waves, it always finds a way to return, even when everything seems lost.
May this retrospective be less about what has been left behind and more about what continues to move. May it remind us that every crossing, no matter how long, carries its point of departure within it, and that it is precisely this memory that allows us to keep moving forward. Once again, may the sea serve as a mirror: reflecting who we were, who we are, and everything that art still has the power to save.”
The Portuguese Surf Film Festival is officially sponsored by the Municipality of Mafra. It is organised by Mind Act and produced by Zucalli Media, with design by Elisabete Ornelas. The festival sponsors are: You and the Sea, Hurley Ericeira, RIBBAÍ, and Kayak Bar. Institutional partners include the Municipality of Mafra, the Ericeira Parish Council, and the Ericeira World Surfing Reserve. Fuel TV and AZUL – Ericeira Mag are the festival’s media partners.
Esta publicação também está disponível em | This article is also available in: Portuguese (Portugal)
