In a landmark year marking its twentieth edition, MOTELX once again gave Lisbon audiences a fright with the best and most diverse horror cinema from different latitudes and styles, bidding farewell on Saturday night to an already loyal public with the crowning of an imaginative short about Portugal's Estado Novo and two Nordic films.
The MOTELX Award – Best Portuguese Horror Short 2026, the largest cash prize for national short films, worth €5,000, was presented to "A Hora do Chico!", by João Severo and Rafael Sá Carneiro. The jury, made up of Fernando Vasquez (programmer), José Santiago (journalist and programmer) and Sandra Henriques (journalist and author), highlighted the "ambition and maturity" of the film, "a disturbing journey through a past that few miss, which merges, in the best possible way, with an alternative reality".
