The great names of contemporary cinema meet at the D’A Film Festival Barcelona, which presents some of the best films of the year, the prizes of international festivals and the new works of renowned directors. The penultimate film by Hong Sang-Soo, Delante de ti, special jury prize in Gijón, could not be left out; Tim Roth stars in Sundown by Michel Franco, the favorite Mexican director of European festivals; Diários de Otsoga by the Portuguese Miguel Gomes and Maureen Fazendeiro, a luminous film that breaks with all the cinema shot in confinement; Nely Reguera’s La voluntaria, the return of the director of María (y los demás) who takes Carmen Machi to a refugee camp in Greece; or Il buco by Michelangelo Frammartino, special jury prize at Venice 2021. The festival’s big names are completed by a session of unreleased short films by Tsai Ming-Liang, the great Taiwanese director, in top form after the beautiful Rizi (Days) presented on last year. New names are also arriving strongly from Asia, with special attention to White Building by Cambodian Kavich Neang, surprising winner of the award for best actor at the 2021 Venice Biennale, and Japanese Haruhara-san’s Recorder by Kiyoshi Sugita, one of the revelations of the year.
French cinema continues to demonstrate its strength and its preferred place as a guide for festival cinephiles with films such as Guermantes by Christophe Honoré, a behind-the-scenes shoot with the Comédie Française company when it was canceled for the pandemic the premiere of his work; Bergman’s Island by Mia Hansen-Love starring Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth, a meta-cinematic delight around the figure of Ingmar Bergman; France by Bruno Dumont, a fierce satire on the world of journalism starring Léa Seydoux; Petite Solange by Axelle Ropert, winner of the prestigious Jean Vigo 2021 award; or Bruno Reidal, the debut of Vincent Le Port with a shocking film about the origins of evil, a discovery at Cannes 2021.
D’A 2022 will also include the previously announced winners of the Cannes 2021 Jury Prize, Memory by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Ahed’s Knee by Nadav Lapid , who will come to Barcelona to present his film; The Souvenir I and II by Joanna Hogg, one of the year’s movie buffs; or Benediction by veteran Terence Davies, winner of the best screenplay in San Sebastian 2021.