Biography
Usually credited as Emanuel Agarez when working as a director or Emanuel Agarez-Guedes also for a variety of other fields, by and large as a film producer, Emanuel's path has over fifty producer and director credits to couple more than 25 years of practice on top of Berlin, Venice, San Sebastián, London (BFI), Sundance, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, São Paulo International Film Festival screenings among countless others not only in both European and American continents but also worldwide such as Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, in Australia; Tokyo, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Jerusalem, Athens, Bucharest, Zagreb, in Asia and Middle East / Mediterranean regions or yet, Brussels, Munich, Oslo or the AFI Fest organized by the American Film Institute, with many awards and other nominations globally in the most important film festivals, markets and competitions across the international festival circuit and film industry -- in the midst of them to also comprise, in UK, the Royal Television Society and the British Film Institute Awards, in the U.S., the Golden Globe Awards.
His notable credits include Difret (2014) with the Academy Award-winning actress and producer Angelina Jolie as an Executive Producer, selected by tiptop film festivals, winner of the audience awards at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals where in the same edition of the Berlinale 2014, he succeeded to be present with two festival entries in one case, shot on old-school 35mm film in Ethiopia, the other one an experimental showpiece route pioneering digital handheld cameras added to a second feature film, Thou Wast Mild and Lovely (2014) to convey the rural Kentucky (written and directed by a promising writer/director, Josephine Decker, also winner at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival); and another one, the socially committed documentary work Photographing the Galuh: Mental Health in Indonesia (2014) shot and cut in a remarkable cinéma vérité style he has memorably produced in Indonesia, but financed and post-produced in the U.S. all together, alongside the Academy, Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning screenwriter and producer Spike Lee.
Born and raised in Europe, preceding his formal filmmaking education, he started to finish the 5-years degree in Law with specialization in Economics plus the postgraduate diploma in Communication Law (Audiovisual, Advertisement, New Technologies and Copyright Law) in the Faculty of Law at the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and a Master in Audiovisual Management with specialization in Film Production (EMAM / MAGICA, Rome, Italy), a program supported and financed by the Dipartimento dello Spettacolo della Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri of the Italian government, sponsored by the European Union in partnership and promoted by ANICA - Associazione Nazionale Industrie Cinematografiche Audiovisive Multimediali (UNPF/UNIDIM) in Rome (Italy), with participation of RAI (Italy), Fininvest Comunicazioni (Italy), New Line Cinema (USA), among other key players of the media industry.
Where among other instructors, Emanuel had opportunity to learn with The Mission (1986)'s producer Fernando Ghia, Christopher Vogler (screenwriting guru who has also taught in the formerly known as University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, UCLA, etc., author of The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers and Hollywood development executive working for Disney Studios with The Lion King (1994) as his most famous story material contribution and Warner Bros. and Fox 2000 Pictures in the development department), Claudio Di Persia (Sony Pictures Entertainment/Columbia TriStar VP/General Manager, AXN/Sony TV channel founder, former Telemundo Network VP, etc.) or Linda Beath (former executive at Telefilm Canada, Ideal Filmworks, EAVE, MEDIA program/pivotal finance expert, etc.).
In the footsteps of film festivals as an award-winning film critic (26th Figueira da Foz International Film Festival) where shared the same interest group with talented artists like Zoë Lund or the legend of avant-garde cinema Jonas Mekas or met other rising stars like Pedro Almodóvar, Emanuel started a career as a TV producer, working for the national Portuguese state TV, succeeding previous TV work. In the late '90s, joined the development (Portuguese participation) as a co-producer for the production of One Hundred Steps (2000), where he prepared the fundraising to the Portuguese film institute to become later a multiple award-winning milestone of the Italian cinema in La Biennale di Venezia - 58th Venice International Film Festival including Best Screenplay.
Meanwhile, finished his dual degree in Film Editing (2001) and Film Directing (2003) at the Lisbon Film School aka National Theatre and Film School in his mother country, where other names of the Portuguese cinema like João Botelho or Pedro Costa succeeded the learning of their craft; he could do part of his education with the cream of the crop of his native country's filmmaking community, as well, with world-renowned names such as Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Lawrence Kasdan's editor, Carol Littleton or with her husband, John Bailey, ASC or his fellow countryman, Eduardo Serra, ASC, AFC, among others, the Portuguese José Manuel Alves Pereira, Eduardo Geada, Paulo Rocha, Alberto Seixas Santos, Mário de Carvalho, Pedro Sena Nunes, etc.; even above and beyond the film school, with one of his utmost influences as writer/director and film auteur he had the fortune to acquire knowledge from Krzysztof Kieślowski and his editor, Jacques Witta or yet the master Tonino Guerra he met and got the chance to learn with. In addition to earlier studies in Film History and Aesthetics a few years before, during the law graduation in the local alma mater (University of Coimbra, Portugal) at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, where also attended classes in its influential department and their full academic program dedicated to Film Studies, where Emanuel had close connection with the scholar Abílio Hernandez Cardoso.
He also attended the Master's Degree in Communication Sciences - Media Studies in the NOVA School of Social and Human Sciences of the NOVA University of Lisbon, where he was student of the owner of the Portuguese TV network SIC & Impresa Group, former Portuguese Prime-Minister Francisco Pinto Balsemão, the film director João Mário Grilo and the screenwriter and actor Paulo Filipe.
As instructor himself, he had contact with the education and training areas, into two higher education institutions (Portuguese Catholic University and Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra in Portugal) where he began his teaching career as lecturer or professor at the media department on filmmaking subjects beyond the movie business.
Over the years, several entities have been in touch with his work and collaboration, as for instance, ANEPA - Asociación Nacional de Empresas de Producción Audiovisual (Spain) where he made his Hispanic markets debut in Madrid, working later as a script reader/analyst in the production company of the veteran Spanish film producer Elías Querejeta. Or yet the professionals he has been working with: Carlos da Silva (ex-director of Cannes MIPTV and former collaborator of Luchino Visconti, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Claude Lelouch, Jean Gabin, Gérard Depardieu, Roman Polanski, Ben Kingsley, George Sluizer, etc.) with whom he started as a junior producer in the arthouse production, joining as a Co-Executive Producer the feature film Dying to Go Home (1996) made with the acclaimed Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer (Producer and Co-Director in this co-production); or as a creative collaborator and a publicist for José Álvaro Morais; without mention, a few others, producing Live Concert videos for bands in particular the English The Stranglers and the Portuguese Sétima Legião (also mid '90s).
With the new century, committed to develop an investment in the field of the digital cinema, he became a pioneer of the new technological revolution, aiding to promote the advent of the RED cinema company (founded by Jim Jannard & Jarred Land) among other innovators, entrepreneurs and early adopter filmmakers to introduce the technology in the film and television business realms. He has been working in the consulting area where beyond the fundraising market segment, happens to be invited and contacted for some professionals of this industry, pursuing local opportunities at the European Union's level and international cooperation to couple several joint ventures.
In the mid 2000s, as a consultant, he is working with Antonio Bottiglieri (RAI executive, former responsible for RAI Fiction, from the national public broadcasting company of Italy) and RAI General Manager in charge of the quality control and technological innovation by then, assisting the beginning of the negotiations for the European expansion of Qube's Digital Cinema System.
Dealing inside the cinema lenses market from Russian and German supplies e.g. directly with Horst Linge (Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 2001 and Isco-Optic Senior Vice President) for the sake of specialty anamorphic lenses in addition to the standard prime and zoom anamorphic lenses, its research, development and adoption across the independent motion picture business, pioneering its introduction in the hybrid camera outfit before others in particular for mirrorless and DSLR devices.
Largely as a film producer, Emanuel AG has participated in a few partnerships with major players of the media sector helping to produce many projects carried out by a variety of individual filmmakers and from prestigious entities, as well, namely London Film School (UK), Bath Spa University (UK), Sheffield Hallam University (UK), Stockholm Film School (Sweden), Universidad Europea del Atlántico (Santander, Spain), Universidad Nacional de las Artes / National University of the Arts (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Universidad del Cine (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (Argentina), University of Southern California (Los Angeles, USA) and New York University Tisch School of the Arts (USA). Founder member in the European Union of the Accademia Generale di Drammaturgia and European Arts Guild.
Then and now, if he keeps going the way he is, as a multifaceted filmmaker crossing different creative departments and gathering a myriad of full-scale professional experience from start to finish since the idea to the exploitation, film production has been his core business through the years, exploring the new media and innovative business models along.
Independent filmmaker making his mark on collaborative creative work, comprehending a very personal view of his own and utterly typical of a vivid auteurism based on prolific formalism, experimental and research cinema from the basic concept of shot and cut (as a writer/director/shooter/editor), whereas, as a film producer, in the course of his career, Emanuel AG has worked and produced different and complex projects, narrative, documentaries, short films and more often feature films, screened and with many awards internationally in the most important film festivals included: the case of Berlin, Sundance and Venice, among a bunch of others worldwide; at the same time, he has been committed for an eclectic wide range of styles and expertise beyond the film to incorporate photography and other artwork in various fields, endorsing other artists overseas to pursue their dreams too.
His contributions join the work of celebrated headliners, notably the Academy, Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee, the Academy Award-winning actress and producer Angelina Jolie and other selected prizewinners or "just" talented doers like The Stranglers or Keanu Reeves.
