DocsBarcelona celebrates its 15th anniversary with notable new features

The International Documentary Festival, which will be held from January 31 to February 5 in Barcelona, ​​goes online. DocsBarcelona moves to the heart of the city of Barcelona and will have the emblematic Palau de la Música for the opening and closing galas.

The International Documentary Festival (DocsBarcelona), which this year celebrates its fifteenth edition from January 31 to February 5, will screen 26 films and will have its online edition that can be followed around Spain and Europe through the Filmin i Mubi platforms.

The online independent film portal Filmin will schedule DocSessions, a retrospective with selected documentaries from previous editions that will begin on January 23 and last for a month. At the European level, DocsBarcelona will have its online version on Mubi, which currently has agreements with top-level festivals as important as Berlin, Sundance, Locarno or San Sebastián.

Physically, DocsBarcelona moves to the heart of the city of Barcelona and will have the emblematic Palau de la Música for the opening and closing galas. We remember that the various screenings will be held at the Renoir Floridablanca Cinemas, the Pitching Forum (financing market) at the Center de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), and the children's matinee sessions, conferences and master classes will continue in the La Pedrera auditorium of CatalunyaCaixa.

Music comes to DocsBarcelona with two documentaries. First of all, the courageous Hope, which opens the festival and portrays the strength and determination of some young people who create a music group to vindicate themselves and overcome the stigma of disability. It will also be screened, in collaboration with Canal +, From the sky down, the documentary about the popular group U2 that opened the last Toronto Film Festival (TIFF) and is directed by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim (An uncomfortable truth). The films, which also include the acclaimed documentary GiveUp Tomorrow about the case of the Filipino Paco Larrañaga, will be distributed in the Official sections, Finisterrae, with the most daring documentaries, DocsAffairs, with documentaries that border on investigative journalism, Doc! Doc! Doc!, which is committed to new talent, and the children's sections 7-11 and 12-16.

Parallel to the festival, the Pitching Forum will be held, which ranks third in the most requested project financing forums in the world. This year, 167 projects from 40 countries have been received, of which 24 have been selected.