Americana Film Fest 2020, Barcelona's tribute to indie cinema

The latest films of Abel Ferrara, Kevin Smith, Harmony Korine and Denis Côté top the billing at this year's Americana Film Fest, which returns to Barcelona from March 3 to 8 for the seventh edition of the festival specializing in American independent cinema. 

In an edition that the organizers promise will be "more social than ever," this year's festival will include productions from Mexico and Quebec, with Canadian filmmaker Denis Côté one of the event's guests of honor.

The Girona and Zumzeig movie theaters in the Catalan capital will be the venues showing the films, beginning with an invitation-only screening of Saint Frances on March 3, a US production by Alex Thompson, starring its scriptwriter, Kelly O'Sullivan.

The organizers say this year's edition of the festival aims to "break down borders" by including films from outside the US, with movies by three Mexican directors: Gael García Bernal, David Zonana and Luke Lorentzen.

Meanwhile, the Canadian contribution comes from the aforementioned Côté, who will premiere the film 'Ghost Town Anthology', while indie veteran Xavier Dolan's 'Matthias & Maxime' can be seen on March 6 in the Girona cinema.

Movies by Ferrara, Smith, and Korine

Other films by veterans of the indie movie scene include Abel Ferrara's documentary 'The Projectionist', Kevin Smith's 'Jay & Silent Bob Reboot', and the latest movie by Harmony Korine, 'The Beach Bum', a comedy starring Matthew McConaughey.

Americana Film Fest will also have the premiere in Spain of Alma Har'el's 'Honey Boy', which bagged the special jury prize at the Sundance festival, and stars Shia LaBeouf, who wrote the screenplay based on his childhood experiences.

Another biopic to be screened at the festival is 'Seberg', a political thriller about the FBI's surveillance of activist and icon of the French New Wave, actor Jean Seberg, who is played by Kristen Stewart.

As well as a Filmoteca retrospective of Oscar-nominated documentary maker Steve James, the festival will premiere his 10-episode documentary, 'America to Me',  which chronicles the daily lives of 12 students in a progressive high school in Chicago. 

Meanwhile, the festival's The Lost Sessions section will pay tribute to cult filmmaker Charles Burnett (Mississippi, 1944), a doyen of American independent cinema, who was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2018.