Great projects don't happen by accident.
Great projects don't happen by accident.
Who We Are
Cascais Ventures conceives, structures, and produces cultural works of lasting significance in Portugal — documentary film, heritage restoration, public art, and artistic programmes — created from scratch with the country's leading artists and most credible institutions.
We exist to make ambitious culture possible. Every project begins with the work itself: its artistic merit and its meaning for the place it belongs to. From there we assemble the institutional partnerships, the financing, and the governance that carry a vision through to something built, funded, and permanent.
Capital, partnerships, and policy follow the quality of the project — never the reverse. That principle is how we protect artistic integrity while meeting the standards of the foundations, the State, and the international patrons who make each project possible.
Featured Project
A cinematic documentary feature and accompanying series chronicling the creation of the Pangea Elephant Sanctuary in the Alentejo — the first refuge of its kind in Southern Europe — and the rescue and relocation of elephants from circuses and zoos across the continent.
Directed by award-winning filmmaker David Novack, the film follows these animals from captivity to open land, and the people who fought to give them a home. It is a story about dignity, repair, and what a society chooses to protect — produced for international audiences while building a lasting cultural and conservation legacy in the region.
Presented by actress and television presenter Vera Kolodzig, our podcast goes behind the cultural projects we create — in conversation with the directors, artists and cultural leaders who bring them to life. The first two episodes are now available.
Hugo Janes tells the story of how Cascais Ventures began and why it exists — a creator and producer of cultural projects conceived from scratch, from feature films and documentaries to heritage rehabilitation and artistic programmes, built on the conviction that capital and partnerships should follow the quality of a project, never the reverse.
Director André Braz on Janes — The Film, his documentary on Alberto Janes: the Alentejo-born pharmacist and poet who wrote some of the most enduring songs in the Portuguese songbook — “Foi Deus”, “Oiça Lá Ó Senhor Vinho” — immortalised by Amália Rodrigues, yet who remained almost unknown himself. A conversation about fado, memory, territory, and giving the name back to the man behind the music.
ARI Cultural has become a serious residency-by-investment route in Portugal. Lower threshold than funds, legally established, and increasingly aligned with what today's investors want.
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