DocsBarcelona 2026 will the Docs of Honor Award to multi award-winning Scottish-Irish filmmaker Mark Cousins, as well as present a retrospective of his work during the next edition, which will take place from May 7 to 17. Cousins will also give a masterclass and will headline the opening conference of the DocsBarcelona Pro professional market.
During his visit to Barcelona, Cousins will present the Spanish premiere of the first episode of his new series, The Story of Documentary Film, following its world and European premieres at the Sundance and Berlin festivals respectively.
“With the new series The Story of Documentary Film, Cousins expands the universe of The Story of Film: An Odyssey, a monumental 15-hour project with which he has redefined the dissemination of film history, reaffirming his status as one of the great audiovisual storytellers of world cinema,” writes DocsBarcelona. “In addition to being among the most prominent contemporary film theorists for his academic and essayistic approaches to the seventh art, Cousins also possesses a remarkable artistic, personal, and auteur-driven side, focused on emotions and perspective, materialized in films such as I am Belfast (2015) and Stockholm, My Love (2016).”
“DocsBarcelona wanted to recognize Cousins for his unquestionable contribution to cinema, culture and audiovisual education, as well as for a career that champions art and cinema as a tool for cultural transformation and critical thinking, open to the world and its complexities, and for his continued work in the dissemination, preservation and renewal of cinematic language, exploring and expanding its limits,” the festival adds.
Cousins is considered one of the most original and influential voices in contemporary documentary cinema. His work explores :the power of the gaze, the history of film, memory, and the transformative capacity of images, with an essayistic and deeply personal style,” Writes DocsBarcelona. His films have been screened at major international festivals—Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, and Toronto—and have received more than 30 awards worldwide.
He is world-renowned for The Story of Film: An Odyssey, a monumental 15-hour project that has redefined the teaching and dissemination of film history, and for which he has received accolades such as the Peabody Award, the Stanley Kubrick Award, a BAFTA Scotland nomination and unanimous praise from international critics.
Among the most outstanding titles in his filmography are also Women Make Film, which premiered in Venice, Toronto and Telluride and was awarded the European Film Academy’s Narrative Innovation Award; The Eyes of Orson Welles, acclaimed at Cannes; The March on Rome, about Mussolini and fascism, premiered in Venice; and My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock, celebrated as one of the best recent works about the filmmaker.
