The last neighborhood cinema on the Cascais Line, the Atlântida Cine in Carcavelos, closed in May 2024 and did not reopen. In December of that year, owner Alexandre Semedo confirmed that the space was for sale. The Cascais Municipal Council unanimously approved, at an Executive meeting on June 16, the acquisition of the property for 600 thousand euros, including all furniture and projection equipment. The deed is still pending due to documentary issues from the Semedo family.
Concerns arose that the space could be transformed into a multipurpose auditorium, rather than maintaining its cinema function. The independent film distributor Cinetoscópio and a community of fans of the Atlântida Cine signed an Open Letter to the President of the Council, Nuno Piteira Lopes, warning of this risk and arguing that a space where a film is occasionally projected does not replace a cinema with regular programming. The municipality clarified that "it is false that there is a decision or intention to transform the space into an auditorium where a film is occasionally projected," guaranteeing that the cinema will remain the central function.
Cinetoscópio had presented a proposal of 200 thousand euros to take over operations, invest in modernization, and reopen in September 2024, but the process was interrupted when the Council expressed interest in purchasing it. The Semedo family put the proposal on hold, awaiting the completion of the sale to the municipality. The Municipality indicates that the operating and management model has not yet been defined and that it has received several expressions of interest from cultural agents.
The Atlântida Cine operated for 41 years, from 1963 to 2024, in the basement of the Carcavelos Shopping Center, next to the train station. Its resistance was due to founder Fausto Semedo, who came from Mozambique to open the cinema, expanding it in the early 1990s with a second screen. After Fausto's death in early 2025, the family decided to sell. The last films shown were "The Nature of Love" and "We Still Have Tomorrow." In parallel, the informal project "Cinema No Bairro" was born, promoting monthly sessions in partnership with the Residents' Association of Bairro das Caixas, bringing together about 100 people at the last session.
