Christmas Eve

SYNOPSIS

It’s Christmas Eve and for the first time in decades, a sudden snowstorm hits Lisbon. What seems like a dreamy White Christmas quickly turns into a nightmare. The airport is shut down and all the flights rerouted to Beja.

Among the passengers is Ana who is back to Portugal after 8 years living in London. She lost her job, cancelled her wedding and now needs to face up to the failure of the plans she made and decide on where to go from here. Amid the airport chaos, she bumps into her ex-boyfriend Fred, who is now a successful urban artist.  After an awkward moment, she walks away and tries to find the buses taking passengers to Lisbon, however the storm worsened, and the roads are now blocked. In the middle of all this mess, Ana makes a friend, Maria, an exec who is travelling with her three children and clearly needs help on how to handle them

On Christmas Eve, everyone is stuck in the airport without knowing when they will be able to reunite with their families. The charismatic Fred tries to calm the more nervous people and take hold of the situation, while avoiding Ana, as he still resents the fact she left him years ago. Fred’s presence is also painful for Ana: she remembers she was happy with him, and regrets having broken it off.

Stuck in the airport we also find Luísa, who dreams of being an influencer, Tiago, a surfer who hates Christmas and came to spend the holidays riding the waves in Nazaré, and Nicolau, the airport café owner, a kind and meddlesome man who looks like Santa and tries to help everyone, even those who don’t want to be helped. Luísa is smitten by Fred, who is attentive to her, much to Ana’s dismay. Meanwhile, acceptant of the idea that they will spend the night at the airport, the group tries to improvise a Christmas meal, with the trickiest situations arising but all’s well that ends well. After all, Christmas magic brings out the best in us.

AVAILABLE AS: Readymade and Format
AWARDS: Lorem award 2025, Lorem Award 2024