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Portuguese filmmaker and producer Antonio-Pedro Vasconcelos' contributions to his country's cinema include the co-founding of one of its most prominent production-distribution companies, V.O. Filmes. In 1969, Vasconcelos also founded the Centro Português de Cinema. Vasconcelos originally studied law at the Universidade de Lisboa until he became fascinated with motion pictures and started writing reviews for the campus film society. From there, Vasconcelos wrote criticism for public journals and newspapers until 1961, when he received a special grant to study film at the Universite de Paris (Sorbonne). Vasconcelos spent 1963 as an apprentice to director Roberto Rossellini in Italy. Upon returning to Portugal, Vasconcelos resumed writing criticism, but also made a few short films. He made his feature-film debut in 1972 with Perdido Por Cem.../100 Times Lost. Vasconcelos has since divided his time between television and feature films as a producer and as a director. In 1990, Vasconcelos accepted an appointment as president of the Secretariado Nacional para o Audiovisual.