Actor Mateus Liravo’s €2.4 million (about $2.6 million) cinema fund paid €1.71 million to three companies linked to his production business, according to grant records and company filings reviewed by The Plausible Post. The fund had been promoted as a way to revive 24 independent cinemas across Portugal.
The payments covered short films, promotional packages and licensing fees. Yet 28 of the 36 neighbourhood applications listed by the Palco Vivo Foundation have no published scores or award decisions, while several cinemas named in the campaign say they received no money.
The list residents demanded
The arrangement came to light after a Porto residents’ group began asking for the names of successful applicants. Its request followed a public meeting at the former Cine Mirante, where locals compared unanswered grant applications and set up a volunteer team to check the foundation’s public filings.
“People were told the money would reach the screens that had kept their doors open,” said Sabine Duhamel, who helped organise the effort. “We found a different kind of list: vendors, fees and no clear explanation of who chose them.”
We found a different kind of list: vendors, fees and no clear explanation of who chose them.
Sabine Duhamel, residents’ group organiser
The foundation’s 2025 accounts show €1.08 million paid to Liravo Screenworks for film production and distribution, with another €630,000 divided between two firms. Company registry entries list all three at the same Lisbon business address; filings also show Liravo Screenworks is controlled by Liravo’s management company.
The star’s defence
The foundation said the contracts funded a national archive of cinema stories and were approved by its board. Liravo, whose period dramas have made him one of Portugal’s best-known screen actors, said the licensing fees were disclosed to trustees and reflected “the real cost of creating work that could keep small cinemas visible”.
He denied that the fund was a personal windfall, but did not answer whether he attended board discussions about the contracts. The foundation declined to name the trustees who approved them, saying it would publish a fuller breakdown by 30 November.
The figures have unsettled cinema operators who built plans around the advertised grants. In Braga, a 1930s single-screen venue postponed repairs and sold two projectors after its application received no response, said its manager, Fred Mason.
The initiative is now asking Portugal’s cultural funding office to require the foundation to publish award scores, contract values and any declared links between trustees and suppliers. The office confirmed it had received the request and said it would assess the fund’s public grant conditions.
Palco Vivo has raised €3.1 million since 2024 through private donations and a municipal matching arrangement, its accounts show. For applicants still waiting, the next test is whether the promised breakdown explains why a campaign for local cinemas sent most of its money to a network connected to its most famous face.
