Fonseca e Costa is a Portuguese director, screenwriter and editor. Before becoming a filmmaker, he studied law in Lisbon. In the 1950s he tried to get a job on Portuguese television, but because of his viewpoints and activism against the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar he was black listed and arrested in 1957. He was forced to move out of the country and went to Paris and then Italy. He returned to Portugal in the late 1960s and made commercials and short documentaries. In 1967, he founded the production house Unifilme and a decade later Filmform. He made his feature film debut O Recado in 1972, and then Os Demónios de Alcácer Quibir (1977), Kilas, o Mau da Fita (1981), Sem Sombra de Pecado (1983), Balada da Praia dos Cães (1987), A Mulher do Próximo (1988) , Os Cornos de Cronos (1991), the popular Cinco Dias, Cinco Noites (1996), O Fascínio (2003) and Viúva Rica Solteira Não Fica (2006).