Running May 7 to 17, the 29th Barcelona International Documentary Film Festival will open with Mehrdad Oskouei’s story of resistance in A Fox Under a Pink Moon.
The film is a first-person account by the young artist Soraya Akhalaghi, who documents for five years her attempts to escape an abusive marriage and reunite with her mother in Austria. Directed remotely by filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei (Starless Dreams, Sunless Shadows), the film will celebrate its Spanish premiere with the director and the protagonist and co-director in attendance. The film was awarded Best Film at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).
The closing film event is Teatres de Campanya: Documented interference: Audiovisual trajectory of the first rocam by Jordi Boquet, Marc Salicrú
OFFICIAL COMPETITION
A competitive section that brings together feature-length documentaries selected from the most recent national and international cinematic productions, aiming to bring other realities from all over the world to the public and address major issues, challenges, and concerns of today’s world.
- A Fox Under A Pink Moon – Mehrdad Oskouei, Soraya Akhalaghi
- Barbara Forever – Brydie O’Connor
- La pietà – Rafa Molés, Pepe Andreu
- The Beauty of Errors – Jukka Kärkkäinen
- The Woman Who Poked The Leopard – Patience Nitumwesiga
- Mailin – María Silvia Esteve
- Les culpables – Marta Duran Lozano
- The Hidden Face of the Earth – Arnaud Alain
- Amazomania – Nathan Grossman
- 80 Angry Journalists – Anna Kis, András Földes
- Whispers in the Woods – Vincent Munier
- Replica – Chouwa Liang
OFFICIAL COMPETITION VISIONS
A competition section that showcases films that push the boundaries of non-fiction through innovative cinematic language and artistic approaches.
- Atlas of Disappearance – Manuel Correa
- Das Deutsche Volk – Marcin Wierzchowski
- Afterlives – Kevin B. Lee
- Like Any Other Mortal – María Molina Peiró
- Do You Love Me – Lana Daher
DOCS&CAT: CATALAN TALENT, NEW AND RENOWNED
The Docs&Cat section brings together a selection of seven feature-length documentaries produced or co-produced in Catalonia, combining the perspectives of established documentary filmmakers with the debut works of new talents.
- Plató 3 – Maria Borrell
- The Travelers – David Bingong
- Indòmita Llum – Luis Sampieri
- Bèstia – Helena Garza
- Miss Jobson – Amanda Sans Pantling
- Herencia – Ricardo Íscar
- Shelter – Adrián Silvestre
A FOCUS DEDICATED TO: DOCS&CITY
The Focus section, dedicated to a different theme each year, will focus this year on the urban environment with Docs&City, five documentaries that explore the transformations, tensions and imaginaries of contemporary cities in environments as diverse as Gaza, Barcelona, Granada, Tokyo and Damascus.
- With Hasan in Gaza – Kamal Aljafari
- Corren las liebres – Lorena Ros
- Quién vio los templos caer – Lucía Selva
- Numakage Public Pool – Shingo Ota
- Little Sinner – Daro Hansen, Thomas Papapetros
SPECIAL SESSIONS
A non-competitive section featuring unique screenings, special premieres, and cinematic events, DocsBarcelona’s Special Screenings this year present seven films, headlined by the premiere of The History of Concrete, the feature film debut of John Wilson, the American filmmaker who returns to DocsBarcelona after presenting his cult series How To with John Wilson. The film transforms concrete into a humorous portrait of urban life and the human condition, and premieres in Spain after screenings at festivals such as Sundance and CPH:DOX.
- The History of Concrete – John Wilson
- Trillion – Victor Kossakovsky
- The Houses in Me – León Guallart
- Abandonados (series), an original Hulu documentary series for Disney+
- Amílcar – Miguel Eek
- Acció Portabella (no al no) – Pere Portabella
MARK COUSINS, DOCS D’HONOR 2026
DocsBarcelona 2026 will award the Docs d’Honor prize to filmmaker Mark Cousins and dedicate a retrospective to him, including the first chapter of The Story of Documentary Film, following its screenings at the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlinale.
- The Story of Documentary Film – Mark Cousins
- I Am Belfast – Mark Cousins
- The March on Rome – Mark Cousins
- A Story of Children and Film – Mark Cousins
The 29th Barcelona International Documentary Film Festival runs May 7 to 17 2026.
