BARQ Festival, International Architecture Film Festival Barcelona ()

Festival start: 11 May 2021      Festival end: 16 May 2021

The BARQ Festival, International Architecture Film Festival Barcelona, celebrates its first edition from May 11th to May 16th 2021, which will take place onsite in the city of Barcelona and online during the Barcelona Architecture Week.

The BARQ Festival is the only film festival dedicated to architecture and interior design in Spain and it is an initiative of Nihao Films, a production company specialized in architectural films, with the support of Fundació Mies van der Rohe, Arquin-FAD, and the Architects’ Association of Catalonia – COAC.

The BARQ Festival is a film festival dedicated to vindicate architectural films as a specific genre and to deepen the relationships between architecture and the seventh art. Cinema uses architecture to show and create worlds exploring social realities, and architecture uses cinema to reach all of the society.

With an extensive program that includes a selection of national and international documentary films and various parallel activities (talks, debates, workshops, conferences), the BARQ Festival brings to all its audience new perspectives on the creative processes behind architectural practice through cinema.

By showcasing a selection of the most recent national and international productions in the field, the festival will serve as a platform for architectural films and cinema inspired by architecture. Our main objective is to bring the most current issues of contemporary architecture practice to the general public through cinema, creating a space for critical reflection on the spaces we inhabit.

· BARQ Award to Best Documentary Film: Awarded by the Jury of the competition documentary feature films section. It consists of a 1,500€ prize and a statuette.

· BARQ Award to Best Documentary Short Film: Awarded by the Jury of the documentary short films section in competition. It consists of a 600€ prize and a statuette.

· BARQ Audience Award: Awarded by the audience for the best documentary film in the section of feature films in competition. It consists of an honorary mention and a statuette.

The festival's program brings together documentary feature films and documentary short films from around the world related to architecture, interior design, urban planning and the built environment.

The theme of the productions must necessarily be linked and/or related to the art of architecture.

Films that through architecture expose, in an innovative and original way, other current issues such as urban activism, politics, economy, environment, territoriality, cultural and social diversity, housing, coexistence and equal rights among people, etc. will be especially valued.

The quality, originality and technical and artistic solidity of the productions will be prioritized. Special attention will be granted to productions that have not participated in other festivals and/or that have not been commercially released.

The program of the festival is presented in the following sections or categories:

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILMS IN COMPETITION: Competitive section of documentary feature films of any nationality that meet the following requirements:
• Completed after January 1st 2019.
• Not been commercially released in theatres, video, television or VOD platforms in Spain.
• Not having participated in festivals or audiovisual events in Catalonia (the screening at BARQ Festival must be, at least, a Catalan premiere).
• The minimum length of feature films must be 50 minutes.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILMS IN COMPETITION: Competitive section of documentary short films of any nationality that meet the following requirements:
• Completed after January 1st 2019.
• Not been commercially released in theatres, video, television or VOD platforms in Spain
• Not having participated in festivals or audiovisual events in Catalonia (the screening at BARQ Festival must be, at least, a Catalan premiere).
• The maximum duration of short films cannot exceed 25 minutes.