In celebration of its 23rd year, the International Women’s Film Festival of Barcelona is adapting its format to new audiovisual consumption trends and taking an active role in the debates with which feminism has burst into the cultural imaginary.
The Festival’s commitment to the visibility of women’s filmmaking has been taking shape on a broad basis and continuously over the years, through a reinterpretation of film history from a feminist perspective.
The Festival also organises debates on feminist theory and criticism, meetings between producers and directors, master classes with professionals, particularly directors, and we publish materials and studies to supplement the conventional information published in the catalogues.

The Festival has always had – and continues to have – a highly educational and awareness-raising character, working with new audiences and providing new knowledge to those already interested in the perspective offered by films directed by women. The aim of Festival’s endeavours and programmes is to become a multi-screen platform where films that are already considered women’s classics are rediscovered and can be compared with new productions. The festival also attaches importance to screening films of different formats: documentaries, fiction films, installations, video art, short films.

The Festival is part of TRAMA (coordinator of exhibitions and film festivals by Spanish women) with whom it has been sharing the project The one-minute Video for 18 years now. It consists of an annual invitation to women around the world to produce a one-minute long sequence shot interpreting a particular concept (excesses, desires, bodies…). It also collaborates with TRAMA to promote Short in Women, a programme that hosts a selection of the best short films made by women each year.

At this year’s Dortmund | Cologne IWFF, Drac Màgic is delighted to present In a Foreign Land by Icíar Bollaín. This documentary looks at the migration movement and the plight of many Spaniards who are forced to search for employment opportunities abroad despite their often high levels of education. In a Foreign Land portrays in an unusual way the history of a country in political, economic, democratic and human crisis and one that is showing clear signs of collapse.