Alberto Seixas dos Santos was born in Lisbon.

He studied historical and philosophical sciences at the University of Lisbon, making film critics regularly since 1958. In 1962 he studied in Paris, at the Institut d’Hautes Études Cinématographiques and, next year, at the London Film School.

Filmmaker of the Novo Cinema movement, part of a generation of film clubs, having been leader of the important Cineclube ABC, he began by directing documentaries like A ARTE E O OFÍCIO DE OURIVES (THE ART AND THE CRAFT OF THE GOLDSMITH) and INDÚSTRIA CERVEJEIRA EM PORTUGAL (THE BEER INDUSTRY IN PORTUGAL), in 1968. In 1970 he was one of the founders of the Portuguese Cinema Centre, and later, the National Film School, where he would be a professor of filmmaking from 1980 to 2002.

BRANDOS COSTUMES (SOFT MANNERS), hist first feature film, shot from 1972 to 1975, establishes a parallel between the everyday of a petty bourgeoisie family and the route of a regime emanated from the military coup of May 28 1926.
The film was selected, in competition, for the Berlin International Film Festival.

He was one of the directors of AS ARMAS E O POVO (THE WEAPONS AND THE PEOPLE), also from 1975, a collective work which captured the first week of the Carnation Revolution, covering the days from the 25th of April to the 1st of May of 1974. Following the same spirit, he directed, again as part of a collective, A LEI DA TERRA (THE LAW OF THE LAND) which would be shown at the Leipzig Film Festival of 1976. A film about the agrarian reform under way in Portugal at the time. In the same year he was nominated the president of the Portuguese Film Institute.

GESTOS E FRAGMENTOS (GESTURES AND FRAGMENTS), of 1982, based on the episodes lived by the famous carnation revolution Capitan Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, reflects on the relationship between the military and power in Portugal. The film would be part of the Venice Film Festival of that year.

In 1999, he directed MAL (MERCY) with Rosa Filmes. The film would have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.