14/03/2025 - The 15th edition of the gathering brimming with arthouse films and emerging international talent will be bookended by Gemma Blasco’s Fury and Gerard Oms’ Molt lluny

The 15th edition of D’A Barcelona Film Festival will unspool from 27 March-6 April, offering audiences the best in recent independent and arthouse cinema, movies that have won awards at prominent festivals and those by the most promising filmmakers, as well as a slew of parallel activities. It will thus present 121 films, encompassing features and shorts (68 of which have been produced by Spain), with 21 world premieres on the cards. The ten-day event will be kicked off by Fury [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gemma Blasco
film profile] by Gemma Blasco and will be brought to a close by Gerard Oms’ feature debut, Molt lluny [+see also:
film review
interview: Gerard Oms
film profile].

In between, one of the highlights of its rich programme is the competitive Talents section, dedicated to emerging filmmakers with a maximum of two features under their belt. It comprises Romania’s The New Year That Never Came [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bogdan Mureşanu
film profile] by Bogdan Mureşanu, crowned Best Film in the Orizzonti section of Venice; My Birthday [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Italy’s Christian Filippi, also screened at Venice, in Biennale College Cinema; the similarly Italian title The Origin of the World by Rossella Inglese; Peacock [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bernhard Wenger
film profile] by Austria’s Bernhard Wenger, Best First Feature Award winner at Stockholm, following its premiere in the Venice International Film Critics’ Week; and Têtes brûlées [+see also:
film review
interview: Maja-Ajmia Yde Zellama
film profile], a Belgian production by Maja-Ajmia Yde Zellama, which scooped a Special Mention from the Generation 14plus international jury at the most recent Berlinale.

This section is rounded off by the European co-productions Pierce [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nelicia Low
film profile] by Singaporean helmer Nelicia Low, the winner of the Best Director Award at Karlovy Vary; New Dawn Fades [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gürcan Keltek
film profile] by Turkey’s Gürcan Keltek, presented in competition at Locarno; and Cabo Negro [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Moroccan writer Abdellah Taïa, which got an airing in the Proxima strand of Karlovy Vary. Alongside these, we find the amusingly titled Mexican flick The Devil Smokes (and Saves the Burnt Matches in the Same Box) by Ernesto Martínez Bucio, winner of Best First Feature at the latest Berlinale; Hong Kong’s To Kill a Mongolian Horse by Xiaoxuan Jiang, presented in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori; Argentina’s The Longest Summer by Alejandra Lipoma and Romina Vlachoff; Brazil’s Salomé by André Antônio; and Japan’s Adabana, directed by Sayaka Kai.

Among the most prominent Spanish titles in the programme, scattered among the different sections of the festival, are Deaf [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eva Libertad
film profile], the feature debut by Eva Libertad, which won the Audience Award in the Berlinale Panorama; the comeback by troublemaker Miguel Ángel Blanca (Magaluf Ghost Town [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Miguel Ángel Blanca
film profile]) with Ejercicios para ver a Dios; Portabella Constellation by Claudio Zulian, a Venice-premiered documentary; Pheasant Island [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the feature debut by Asier Urbieta, which got an airing at Göteborg; Duro, the sophomore opus by Francesc Cuéllar; and Esmorza amb mi, the first feature-length effort by Iván Morales, which is an adaptation of his own stage play.

Lastly, in the competitive Un Impulso Colectivo (lit. “A Collective Impulse”) section, 11 Spanish features will be showcased: Invasión pequeña, also by Miguel Ángel Blanca, in this case sharing directorial duties with Jesús Manresa Puche; Burnout by Ander Duque and Felipe Almendros; Buscant el meu propi nom by Pau García Pérez de Lara; La casa y el ternero by Rocío Montaño Parreño; Turismo de guerra. De la guerra también se sale by Kikol Grau; Dies d'estiu i de pluja by the Espurnes Collective; Jone, Sometimes by Sara Fantova; On eres quan hi eres? by Jana Montllor Blanes, a documentary about musician Ovidi Montllor; Te separas mucho by Paula Veleiro, which won an award at the most recent Gijón Film Festival; Coto privado de caza by Carlos Balbuena; and Retaguardia by Ramón Lluís Bande.

(Translated from Spanish)