DocsBarcelona 2025 offers a dozen open events 

This year’s edition of the DocsBarcelona will broaden its program with twelve public events, designed to show the creative processes behind some of the documentaries and themes portrayed on screen.

Taking place between May 8 and 18, the festival will include documentary screenings, talks and debates, masterclasses, and concerts.

All the activities will take place at different venues of Barcelona’s Contemporary Culture Center (CCCB), Casa Montjuïc, while documentaries will also be screened in Cinemes Renoir Floridablanca, Phenomena, Filmoteca de Catalunya, and Espai Texas. 

Festival highlights 

One of the festival highlights is the screening of Monk in Pieces on May 16, followed by a live performance from the Catalan composer and performing artist Clara Aguilar.

The event will mark the first collaboration between the three Catalan documentary festivals DocsBarcelona, In-Edit, and Dart.  

On May 11 at 6 pm at CCCB, the screening of ‘Khartoum’ will be followed by a talk between the documentary’s producer, Talal Afifi, and the artistic collectives Jokkoo Collective and cantdefine.me, to reflect on cinema as a form of resistance.

On May 14 after the screening of ‘Yalla Parkour’ at CCCB, the film’s protagonist, Ahmed Matar will have a conversation with the president of the Palestinian Community in Catalonia, Natàlia Abu-Sharar about the value of art, community and a shared identity, as well as the importance of creating collective stories that amplify the voices of people like the Palestinians in the face of violence.

12 activities for professionals

During the festival, around twenty activities have been planned for professionals. 

The opening conference of DocsBarcelona Industry 2025 will be open to the public. Themed ‘Nobody Cares About the Truth’, the session with feature a masterclass by anthropologist Manuel Delgado on May 13 at 7:30 pm at CCCB.

On May 13 at 6 pm the Sala Raval of CCCB will host DTalk: Filming Intimacy: Navigating Friendship in Documentary, about the ethical dilemmas, challenges and opportunities when shooting a documentary from the intimacy of a friendship.

A masterclass on editing will take place on May 16 at 6:30 pm at CCCB, where the editor of the film ‘Trains’, Rafal Listopad, who recently won the Best Editing Award at IDFA, will talk about the editing process of his latest documentary.

First International Emmy for Catalan tv

‘Point of No Return’ is the documentary series that has brought the first International Emmy to the Catalan public broadcaster, 3Cat. On May 14, at 6:30 pm at CCCB, the documentary’s director, Raül Gallego, will talk about the process of creating the series.

Gallego will also participate in a discussion with journalists Etienne Huver and Mònica Terribas about their transition from journalism to documentary filmmaking, moderated by journalist Carles Prats. 

37 Q&A sessions 

Part of this year’s program will also be 37 Q&A sessions after documentary screenings. These are designed to connect emerging and established filmmakers with the local and international documentary film scene.

Tickets and full program of the festival can be found here.