39th Bolzano Film Festival

In its 39th edition, the Bolzano (Bozen) Film Festival is setting a geographical focus, dedicating a section to the contemporary cinema of Catalonia, one of the most dynamic regions for European film production.

The Focus Catalonia section is curated by Vincenzo Bugno with the support of Isona Admetlla Font and Ricardo Apilánez. It highlights a film culture known for its formal experimentation, strong directors, and a unique proximity between documentary, fiction, and experimental styles. This project was made possible thanks to the support of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Spanish Embassy in Italy.

For four years, the festival has paid special attention to regions whose complex identities resonate with the history and cultural reality of South Tyrol. The focus is often on border areas or cultural landscapes with multi-layered identities, multilingual societies, and historical tensions. Catalonia embodies many of these aspects. The region has a strong cultural and linguistic identity, a language spoken by millions, a vibrant economy, and a highly productive cultural scene with significant international visibility.

"Giving space to Catalan cinema means engaging with one of the most active film regions in Europe, both in terms of production dynamics and international cooperation strategies," says Vincenzo Bugno, artistic director of the Bolzano Film Festival. "A particular emphasis of the section lies on hybrid documentary production, which has grown strongly in recent years and has been encouraged by the work of numerous institutions and film schools in Catalonia. Many of the selected works move deliberately between documentary, fiction, and experimental practice, expanding the possibilities of cinematic storytelling."

The programme features seven films that represent this universe. These include works by Andrés Duque, Virginia García del Pino, José Luis Guerin, and Neus Ballús, which offer different perspectives on documentary narration. In Carelia: Internacional con Monumento, Andrés Duque travels to the Finnish-Russian border to explore a landscape where shamanic traditions, folklore, and the traumatic traces of Stalinist purges meet. Virginia García del Pino’s La estafa del amor combines readings, conversation, and cinematic reflection into a multi-layered investigation of romantic love, deception, and the role of cinema in constructing desire and emotion. José Luis Guerin’s Historias del Buen Valle leads to the outskirts of Barcelona, to the Vallbona district, where a poetic panorama of everyday life and a quiet resistance to urban and social changes unfold among gardens, railway lines, and motorways. In The Odd-Job Men (Sis dies corrents), Neus Ballús follows three plumbers on their daily shifts in Barcelona, providing a sensitive portrait of work, migration, and city life with documentary precision and humour. Also in the programme is Albert Serra’s film Afternoons of Solitude (Tardes de soledad), an intense portrait of star bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey that observes the controversial tradition of bullfighting through a visual style that is both fascinating and disturbing. Producer Montse Triola will be in Bolzano for the screening.

Carla Simón is also represented with her new film Romería, which is simultaneously being shown in the festival's competition, highlighting the creative strength of Catalan film production. The internationally acclaimed director is known for sensitive cinema that connects intimate family stories with questions of memory and heritage. Romería focuses on 18-year-old Marina, who travels to Galicia to obtain her grandparents' signature for a scholarship. Within a family largely unknown to her, old tensions, hidden memories, and unresolved questions about her deceased parents emerge as she begins to piece together the fragmentary stories of her origin. Lead actor Mitch Martín will be a guest at the festival and participate in the event.

Over time, an increasing number of films have been made outside Europe thanks to the involvement of Catalan institutions. A wonderful example is Magalhães by Filipino director Lav Diaz, which tells the story of Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition as an epic and critical portrait of colonial conquest.

Festival guests also include Marta Andreu, a producer, curator, and lecturer, and one of the defining voices of contemporary Catalan documentary film. As part of the Focus section, she will present the performance Lovesong, a non-existent film in progress on the first Sunday afternoon at Club 3. The starting point is an attempt at a cinematic portrait of the Catalan poet Lala Blay, which Andreu began twenty years ago and left unfinished. As fragments of the recordings appear, she reads a personal text and develops an essayistic monologue on memory, loss, and the relationship with images. Lala Blay will also be present at the event in Bolzano. Entry is free.

To dive deeper into the world of Catalan cinema, the festival invites you to the talk Focus Catalonia: The Charm of the Contemporary. Languages, Borders and the Challenge of Reality at the Waaghaus on 13 April 2026 at 5 pm. The talk will be moderated by Vincenzo Bugno and Isona Admetlla Font. Guests include director Andrés Duque, whose film Carelia: Internacional con Monumento is in the programme, producer Alba Lombardía for Historias del Buen Valle, and producer and lecturer Marta Andreu.

Guests of the Focus section attending the 2026 festival:
Marta Andreu, producer and lecturer
Lala Blay, poet
Andrés Duque, director of Carelia: Internacional con Monumento
Isona Admetlla Font
Alba Lombardía, producer of Historias del Buen Valle
Mitch Martín, lead actor in Romería
Montse Triola, producer of Afternoons of Solitude and co-producer of Magalhães.

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