Spring brings an exciting energy back to the city. The sun is warmer, the days are longer and grass is greener. Although you may feel the desire to shake off that winter slumber and reacquaint yourself with an active outdoor schedule, consider taking a few hours to sit back and relax while enjoying some of the most cutting-edge cinema from around the world.
Barcelona boasts a wide variety of renowned film festivals each spring, and 2026 promises to be another spectacular edition. You'll discover festivals dedicated to fashion docs, films inspired by literature and history, astounding cinematic works that delve into the creativity, mystery and resilience of the human brain and films that explore the LGBTIQ+ experience. From premieres to classics, from established directors to up-and-coming artists and independent productions, each festival brings to Barcelona an in-depth look at places, ideas and themes that we might not otherwise have the opportunity to explore.
Film still from "The Plague," directed by Charlie Polinger (Australia, UAE, USA, Romania, 2025).
Americana Film Festival
March 10-15, 2026
Started by a group of friends who wanted Barcelona audiences to be able to enjoy some of the best independent films from North America, Americana Film Festival features a diverse range of films directed by established prize-winners and break-out newbies, showcasing some of the best North American cinematic talent. The festival celebrates its thirteenth edition with special guests Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross, creators of Americana classics like Western, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets and Gasoline Rainbow.
Other films in the program include Michael Angelo Covino's Splitsville, a witty, funny, and uninhibited comedy of errors that explores the consequences of a polyamorous world; Charlie Polinger’s debut feature The Plague plays with the perversions of adolescence to deliver a disturbing and tense film that blends body horror and psychological terror; Cole Webley's Omaha stands out for its emotional narrative and for sensitively portraying the deep bond between a father and his children; James Sweeney's Twinless, is a profound and unsettling film that explores mourning, friendship, love and jealousy, loss and emotional needs; Stephanie Laing's Tow, is an intimate drama based on the true story of a homeless woman that address deeply rooted social issues such as poverty, access to justice, and the humanization of homelessness; Noah Dixon and Ori Segev's documentary The Bulldogs is a moving portrait of a handful of citizens who must decide whether to fight for their future or build a new one elsewhere after a hazardous chemical spill devastates their small Ohio town; acclaimed filmmaker David Osit's powerful and critical documentary Predators turns the camera on journalists, law enforcement officers, academics, and, ultimately, himself, to trace America’s obsession with watching people at their lowest; and so many more!
Tickets are €8 per screening, €40 for entrance to six sessions or €85 for all sessions. Films are shown in original version with either Spanish or Catalan subtitles. Screenings take place in Cinemes Girona, Cinemes Texas, Zumzeig Cine Cooperativ, Mooby Aribau and Filmoteca de Catalunya. See the event's webpage for updates on the detailed program of screenings: americanafilmfest.com
Film still from "Tres adioses" directed by Isabel Coixet (Spain, Italy, 2025).
Brain Film Fest
March 11-15, 2026
As you guessed, the brain is the star of this festival. With a unique emphasis on cinema, neurology, psychiatry and technology, the Brain Film Fest includes screenings, lectures and workshops all aimed to encourage cinematic creation and raise awareness of the brain, its amazing capabilities and the diseases that threaten it.
Filmmaker Carla Simón will receive the Special Award at this year's festival in recognition of a filmography that is deeply connected with memory, emotions, identity and family relationships, central themes in the understanding of the human condition and the functioning of the brain. In addition to the honorary award, the festival will screen for the first time together the three films in her widely recognized autobiographical trilogy: Summer 1993 (2017), Alcarràs (2022) and Romería (2025) .
Other notable titles in the program include Kirk Jones' I Swear (UK, 2025) based on the true story a young man with Tourette Syndrome who is misunderstood by his peers and neighbors throughout adolescence and later becomes an activist and advocate for his condition; Isabel Coixet's Tres adioses (Spain, Italy, 2025), a love letter to life imbued with sensitivity and tenderness; Lola Doillon's Différente (France, 2025) explores a love tested by an autism diagnosis in a beautiful and delicate film that addresses autism with sincerity; Gemma Blasco's La Furia (Spain, 2025), a powerful, brutal film that draws a portrait of anger and pain following a rape; Ursula Macfarlane's My Brain: After The Rupture (UK, 2025), a deeply moving film that explores identity, recovery and the transformative power of the arts in the aftermath of trauma; Luis Gómez Juanes' Ramón y Cajal: dibujos en la retina (Spain, 2025), a documentary that revisits the figure of the Aragonese Nobel laureate from a contemporary perspective, exploring his fascination with images as a bridge between the physical world and the brain. And that's just the beginning!
Co-organized by the Pasqual Maragall Foundation and Minimal Films production company, the festival features screenings of 19 feature-length films and several short films from a variety of countries, all with an emphasis on the brain, the adversities it faces and its infinite capacities. Films are shown in original version. Screenings will take place at CCCB. The BFF film sessions are free of charge, but prior registration is required; tickets can be reserved through the festival’s website: brainfilmfest.com
Film still from "Naked Ambition" directed by Dennis Scholl, Kareem Tabsch (USA, 2023).
Moritz Feed Doc
March 18-22, 2026
A festival exclusively dedicated to fashion documentaries, Moritz Feed Doc offers some of the most niche content of this spring season. Featuring works about Brigitte Bardot, Thom Browne and everything in between, this is an event for fashion gurus and documentary fans alike. The festival strikes a balance between the glamor and hedonism surrounding fashion with themes that aim to reflect the other side of the coin. It explores aspects related to identity, gender, equality and how these concepts are treated both in fashion and in society.
This year's festival kicks off with Reiner Holzemer's AKRIS: Fashion With a Heritage (USA, 2025), which explores the balance between tradition, craftsmanship and innovation of the 100-year-old Swiss brand. In honor of the festival's 10th anniversary, a retrospective of Holzemer work brings together five additional films that exemplify his distinctive approach. In Dries (Germany, 2016), he follows Dries Van Noten during a pivotal year in his career; in Martin Margiela: In His Own Words (Belgium, Germany, 2019), the filmmaker addresses one of the most enigmatic figures in contemporary fashion; Thom Browne: The Man Who Tailors Dreams (Italy, Germany, 2024) offers an immersion into the singular universe of a creator who has transformed classic tailoring through a radical and narrative vision; and two documentaries dedicated to two major photographers, Juergen Teller and William Eggleston.
Other films in the festival program include Naked Ambition (USA, 2023), Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tabsch's documentary on little-known designer and photographer Eleanor “Bunny” Yeager, who shaped 20th-century pop culture by popularizing bikinis and influencing Playboy. Alain Berliner's Bardot (France, UK, 2025), profiles Brigitte Bardot, who gave up fame in 1973, fleeing heartbreak, paparazzi and exploitation; in a rare final appearance, she opens her world and her home at La Madrague to talk about her work and legacy. In a joint project by Rabi Yansané, Emmanuelle Wagner and Rolf Lambert, African Styles (Germany, 2023) highlights a new generation of independent self learners who share a common passion for African culture and aesthetics and a strong ethic in opposition to the huge fast fashion industry. Alice Winocour's Couture (USA, 2025) takes place in the frenzy of Fashion Week in Paris; three women grappling with their own tragedies cross paths in a film that reveals the quiet resilience beneath the surface of public performance and honors the unspoken solidarity shared among them across professions, cultures and continents. The larger-than-life love story of Alan and Adrianne takes over the big screen in Shannon Walsh's Adrianne & The Castle (USA, 2024); when Adrianne passes away, Alan creates a home that sits somewhere between an altar, a sanctuary, and a museum—an innocent fairy tale that celebrates the idea of a “soulmate” and transcends any cinematic categorization.
With over 20 films on the docket and talks on music and fashion, influencers, identity and the human and environmental toll of our excessive consumption, the festival brings us closer to the richness and complexity of a cultural phenomenon in constant transformation
Hosted at Mooby Bosque Multicines, the festival offers a wide range of ticket packages varying from the basic package which includes single tickets for €9, six-show passes for €42 and eight-show passes for €52. Almost all films are shown in their original version with subtitles in either Spanish or Catalan. moritz.feeddoc.org
Film still from "The Love That Remains" directed by Hlynur Pálmason (Iceland, 2025).
D'A Film Festival
March 19-29, 2026
Each spring, the D’A Film Festival offers an extensive review of current world cinema, screening an international panorama of the finest contemporary. Featuring emerging talents alongside internationally established directors, the festival claims to be one of the Mediterranean’s best events of the spring. The large-scale event spreads across several locations in Barcelona and includes supplemental events such as panel discussions, workshops, musical performances and professional development workshops.
This year's retrospective is dedicated to German filmmaker Christian Petzold, who will attend the festival to present an extensive retrospective of his work as well as the Catalan premiere of his latest film, Miroirs No. 3. Petzold’s view of contemporary Europe, somewhere between hopeful and on the verge of collapse, between the promise of the future and the gaze of past catastrophes, has taken the form of melodrama, fantastic fables and sociopolitical stories that are completely outside the norm. His cinema is characterized by precise and austere staging, with characters often trapped in spaces of transit. A prolific filmmaker, selected and awarded at festivals such as Berlin, Venice and San Sebastián, he has established himself as one of the essential voices of contemporary European cinema.
The festival opens with David Moragas' Un altre home (Spain, 2026) a contemporary love story with touches of comedy that explores the complexity of romantic relationships and the decisions couples are often faced with in their thirties—a reflection on love, expectations and loss at a pivotal moment in life. Other films on the agenda include Alexia Walther and Maxime Matray's Affection Affection (France, 2025), a meandering film that takes the form of a thriller as a town hall employee takes on the investigation of a teenage girl's disappearance amid swirling rumors; Eimi Imanishi's debut feature Nomad Shadow (Spain, USA, 2025) explores displacement and the search for identity in a film that moves intelligently between poetry and politics; and Claire Denis' The Fence (France, 2025) delves into the darkest corners of neocolonialism with a chilling drama set in West Africa.
In Michał Ciechomsk's Kingdom (Poland, 2025) the apocalypse unfolds before our eyes as a country on the brink of war sees the rise of a paramilitary group recruiting men with dreams of power and eager to experience real violence in an unsettling and hyper-testosterone-fueled dystopia. Marc Ortiz Prades' debut feature film Els mals noms (Spain, 2025) demystifies the dark legend of "La Pastora," a young intersex person registered as a girl at birth, who struggles to be recognized as a man within the archaic Spanish society of the early 20th century while being persecuted by guerrillas, bandits and the Civil Guard.
Georgian director Alexandre Koberidze, one of the most prominent young directors in European cinema, will present Dry Leaf (Germany, Georgia, 2025) at the festival, a masterful film about time, memory and human bonds. Hlynur Pálmason will also be at the the festival with his film The Love That Remains (Iceland, 2025), a beautiful and tragicomic portrait of a marriage in decline. In Ghost Elephants (USA, Angola, Namibia, 2025) veteran director Werner Herzog embarks on another of his adventures, which this time takes him to encounter the mysterious ghost elephants of Angola. Júlia de Paz Solvas' film La buena hija (Spain, Belgium, 2025) is a harrowing story about the aftermath of hidden violence and emotional abuse seen through the eyes of a teenage girl caught between her fascination with her artist father and the repercussions of his abuse.
Ticket prices are €35 for six tickets and the VIP pass for €85 which includes access to all sessions (seat reservation required) and two invitations to the opening session and one to the closing session.
Participating venues include CCCB, Filmoteca de Catalunya, Zumzeig and Aribau Cinema. Most showings take place in original language with subtitles in either Catalan or Spanish, see the official website for details. dafilmfestival.com
Film still from "Tokyo Taxi" directed by Yôji Yamad (Japan, 2025).
BCN Film Fest
April 16-24, 2026
Film, history and literature, oh my! The Barcelona International Film Festival, or BCN Film Fest, boasts the highest quality films, with a goal to unite lovers of cinema, history and literature with a selection of more than 70 international films. In line with this criteria, featured films shown at Cines Verdi are often adaptations of literary works, productions related to historical events or biopics about well-known figures.
This year, acclaimed actor and four‑time Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe will present his new drama The Birthday Party at the festival. Director Fatih Akin will also be in attendance with the historical drama Amrum, and director and composer Damian Michieletto with the historical drama Primavera. Other early confirmations include Jan Komasa's psychological thriller Good Boy (Poland, UK, 2025), Eric Lin's drama Rosemead (USA, Taiwan, 2025), Haifaa al-Mansour's thriller Unidentified (Saudi Arabia, 2025), and Yôji Yamad's drama-comedy Tokio Taxi (Japan, 2025), with many more to come!
Most of the movie screenings are in original language with subtitles and will take place at Cinemes Verdi. Other venues include the Institut Français, CaixaForum, Casa Seat, La Perla 22 and a number of civic centers in Barcelona. Tickets sales begin in April 2026. Please check the official program for details. bcnfilmfest.com
Image courtesy of DOCS Barcelona.
DocsBarcelona
May 7-17, 2026
Now entering its 27th season, DocsBarcelona is a festival dedicated to documentary film. Each year, an international programing committee selects films for three different categories: Panorama, Latitude and What the Doc! These three groupings highlight the newest international documentaries, most daring and innovative documentaries and documentaries from the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America. The festival is dedicated to bringing professional talent and productions closer to the audience through conferences and activities such as its Q&A sessions with directors and industry experts. The 2026 program will be announced soon.
A few of the captivating films in last year's edition included 9-Month Contract, Ketevan Vashagashvili (Georgia, Bulgaria, 2025); Searching for Amani, Debra Zimmerman and Debra Gormley (Kenya, USA, 2024); BOYZ, Sylvain Cruiziat (Germany, 2023); Unanimal, Sally Jacobson and Tuva Björk (France, Sweden, 2025); and Facing War, Tommy Gulliksen (Norway, 2025).
All films are shown in original version with subtitles in Catalan and English. docsbarcelona.com
Film still from "The Queen of My Dreams," directed by Fawzia Mirza (Canada, Pakistan, 2023).
Mostra FIRE!!
June 4-14, 2026
Celebrating another year with pride, the Mostra FIRE!! Film Festival showcases the best LGBTIQ+ films from across the world. Organized by Casal Lambda de Barcelona since 1995, it was the first LGBTIQ+ film festival in Spain. The festival aims to deal with diversity through a carefully curated selection of feature-length films, shorts and documentaries. For nearly two weeks, the Institut Français will host a wide range of films featuring stories and testimonies from individuals, creators who break down barriers, fight for human rights and help—through love—to build a fairer and freer world. The 2026 program is in the works and will soon be announced.
Last year the festival opened with Javier van de Couter's Tesis sobre una domesticación (Argentina, 2024), the story of trans actress and writer Camila Sosa Villada, who masterfully embodies a protagonist who refuses to succumb to either the norms of success and family or the expectations of life as a trans woman. Other films in the packed agenda include Marco Calvani's High Tide (USA, 2024), set in Provincetown, it weaves a colorful web of queer lives intersecting on the beaches of one of North America’s premier gay destinations; D.W. Waterson's Backspot (Canada, 2023) with a high-voltage soundtrack that flips the gay cheerleading genre on its head; Fawzia Mirza's directorial debut The Queen of My Dreams (Canada, Pakistan, 2023), a luminous comedy-drama about the complicated (and often omnipresent) bonds between mothers and daughters; Morgan Simon's Une vie rêvée (Somewhere in Love), the touching story of a mother and son struggling to make ends meet in a low-income housing estate in the Paris suburbs, a celebration of everyday love and family in its many forms; and Rohan Parashuram Kanawade's debut feature Cactus Pears (India, UK, Canada, 2025) a natural and sincere narrative of familial bereavement and queer longing that moves away from the most predictable tropes, a gem of independent Indian cinema.
All films are shown in original version most with subtitles in Catalan and English. mostrafire.com
Festival Wallay!
WALLAY!
2026 Dates to be Announced
Barcelona's African Film Festival is a unique and original journey to the diversity and creativity of the African continent narrated through its cinematographic language and its cultural expressions. Created in 2018, Wallay! offers viewers the opportunity see original independent films which would not otherwise reach Catalunya.
Films on the 2026 roster included Bolanle Austen-Peters' Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (Nigeria, 2024) the story of a women's rights leader who fought against colonial oppression and the traditional authorities; Sol de Carvalho's "O Ancoradouro do Tempo (Mozambique, 2023), a crime film that challenges the conventions of the genre, where suspects usually deny their guilt, and that addresses issues such as collective memory, justice and the aftermath of colonialism; and Mohamed Kordofani's Goodbye Julia (Sudan, 2023), a powerful metaphor for the ethnic, religious and social tensions that divide Sudan.
In addition to enjoying the best African cinematography, Wallay! organizes round-table discussions, workshops, debates and many other activities parallel to the screenings. Films will be shown at Filmoteca de Catalunya and the Institut Français. festivalwallay.com
Image courtesy of La Gran Pantalla.
La GRAN Pantalla
2026 Dates to be Announced
This festival does kick off the summer season, but we just had to squeeze it in for its unique focus. La GRAN Pantalla is an international film festival for the elderly, an inter-generational meeting space to promote cinema as a tool for dialogue, reflection and social transformation around the ideas that society perpetuates about people as they age.
Screening films that tackle issues that affect the elderly, the festival explores their plurality and combats the most pervasive stereotypes. It highlights the beauty of aging, reflects on what unites us and highlights what differentiates us from those around us. La GRAN Pantalla takes a long, lingering look at the older people we will become, if we are lucky. Films will be screened at Cinemes Girona, the program schedule will soon be available on the festival website: lagranpantallafestival.com