Paulo Branco was born in Lisbon in 1950. He starts his career as a producer in 1979 between Paris and Lisbon. Nowadays, he embodies one of the most important figures of independent production in the world. Key player of auteur cinema, he is recognized for having given their first chances to numerous aspiring filmmakers who turned into immense cinematographers, offering them the opportunity to make their screen debut.

So far, he has produced over 300 films and has worked with the most renowned film directors in the world such as David Cronenberg, Jerzy Skolimowski, Wim Wenders, Chantal Akerman, Alain Tanner, Werner Schroeter, André Téchiné, Andrzej Zulawski, Christophe Honoré, Olivier Assayas, Sharunas Bartas, Cédric Kahn, Lucas Belvaux, Valéria Bruni- Tedeschi, João César Monteiro, Paul Auster, Philippe Garrel, Mathieu Amalric, Andrzej Zulawski, among many others. His career has particularly been branded with an intense collaboration, during more than 20 years, with Raúl Ruiz (Time regained, Three lives and only one death…) and with Manoel de Oliveira (Francisca, Abraham’s valley, The satin slipper…)

His contribution to the dynamics of independent cinema is as remarkable as the extent of his international visibility. Since the very beginning of his career, Paulo Branco has established his presence in the greatest international film festivals.

He was the president of the Jury of the Official Selection in Competition at the Locarno Film Festival (2011), Lecce Film Festival (2011), Lucca Film Festival (2016) and the ‘Spirit of Fire’ Festival in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia (2018). In addition, he joined the panel of judges of the Official Selection in Competition of the Rotterdam Film Festival (2006), Venice Film Festival (2005) and Berlin Film Festival (1999).

Paulo Branco is also well-known as the producer who has had the greatest number of films selected at Cannes Film Festival and the greatest number of films having competed for the Golden Palm. He presented 53 films in Cannes - 27 of which in Official Selection - and brought 48 films to the Venice Film Festival.

Moreover, Paulo Branco is President of LEFFEST - Lisbon & Sintra Film Festival, event that he founded in 2007. Every year he welcomes there the greatest artists and intellectuals of the world, such as David Lynch, Pedro Almodóvar, Bernardo Bertolucci, Francis Ford Coppola, Jim Jarmusch, Catherine Deneuve, Wes Anderson, Nan Goldin, Isabelle Huppert, Don Delillo, J.M. Coetzee, Cindy Sherman, Lou Reed, Stephen Frears, John Malkovich, Matthew Barney, Paul Giamatti… just to mention a few.

Paulo Branco has also received numerous awards and several tributes during his career. The European Parliament in Strasbourg awarded him with the title of “Greatest European Producer” in 1997. In 1998, the Republic of Chile decorated him with the Gabriela Mistral Order, the highest distinction of the country, for his collaboration with Raúl Ruiz. In 2002, the Locarno Film Festival dedicates, for the very first time, the Raimondo Rezzonico award to a producer by rewarding Paulo Branco. He also received Golden Horse Film Festival Award, in Taipei. In 2004, Jacques Chirac gave him recognition as an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic. In 2014, he was awarded with CINEUROPA Award. The World Cultural Council awarded him with the Leonardo Da Vinci Award of Arts in 2019. In 2021, he was honored for the second time by the French Cinémathèque, which dedicated a first tribute entitled “Bravo Branco” to him in 1992, and thus became the first independent producer to be honored twice by the prestigious cinémathèque.