Barcelona Jewish Film Festival 2026
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Film still from "Les mille et un jours du Hajj Edmond," directed by Simone Bitton (Morocco, France, 2024).
Barcelona’s Festival Cinema Jueu is one of the most anticipated events of its kind in Europe dedicated exclusively to celebrating the artistry and creativity of Jewish culture, which is itself inextricably bound to the city and to Spain.
Every year since 1999 the festival has delivered a new and diverse series of cinematic and artistic projects to the public. No stone is left unturned in this impressive collection, as a variety of genres and topics are explored in great depth: from documentaries and feature films to independent shorts and audiovisual pieces.
2026 Program
For centuries, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean were spaces of a complex and fertile coexistence between Jews and Arabs, who shared a language, traditions, and a common imaginary. For Jews and Muslims alike, Arabic was a shared territory of thought and experience, where bonds were forged that transcended any exclusionary identity.
The twentieth century fractured this reality: European colonization and the consolidation of modern nation-states imposed new borders upon it, replacing the complexity of these shared worlds with the logic of homogeneous identities—leaving behind displacements and wounded memories that still mark the present. This cycle offers a reflection on this fragmented history. Through documentary, archive, testimony, and fiction, the selected films follow the traces of an erased coexistence and question the official narratives of separation.
At the heart of this journey is the work of Simone Bitton, a filmmaker born in Morocco and a champion of a Jewish-Arab identity that resists exclusionary national categories. Her filmography is a sustained investigation into memory, exile, and belonging: from her portraits of figures such as Mahmoud Darwish and Edmond Amran El Maleh to her explorations of the wall in Palestine and the Jewish traces left in Morocco, Bitton builds a rigorous and deeply humanist gaze throughout her work.
Alongside it, films such as No sea tu falta by Moisés Salama, Coexistence, My Ass! by Amber Fares, and Lyd by Rami Younis and Sarah Ema Friedland broaden the conversation from complementary perspectives: the search for roots and the critique of official discourses become tools for thinking about memory and a coexistence that, despite its conflicts, was once a lived reality. With this selection, a new platform is born, as a pilot edition within the festival itself—Barcelona Independent Jewish-Arab Films—dedicated to independent cinema emerging from the Jewish-Arab and Jewish-Muslim worlds, jointly driven by the Institute for Jewish Studies Barcelona, the Festival de Cinema Jueu de Barcelona, and ALBI, and conceived to become an annual event and, in time, to travel to other cities, festivals, and cultural institutions.
More than a look back at the past, this cycle invites us to rethink silenced histories and to recognize within them bonds that still defy imposed borders. Where geopolitics has produced separation, cinema opens up a space for memory and reflection.
Tickets
Films are screened in original version with Catalan subtitles. Screenings will be held October 13-28 at the Filmoteca de Catalunya and November 13-15 at Cinemes Girona. Tickets can be purchased directly at the Filmoteca de Catalunya for €4 a session and at Cinemes Girona for €5 a session.
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October Film Festivals in and around Barcelona
October’s calendar is packed with an impressive list of film festivals in and around the city. Check out our article October Film Festivals in and around Barcelona where you'll find gritty investigative documentaries, hair-raising fantasy and horror flicks and everything in between!