The festival, committed to promoting contemporary Asian cinematographies, will screen independent, experimental, and auteur cinema. The selection includes works primarily produced between 2025 and 2026, covering regions such as Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the Asia-Pacific region.
Special attention will be given to emerging filmographies from countries like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Cambodia, as well as established ones from Iran, China, South Korea, Japan, and Philippines. Titles from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam will also be featured, alongside productions from Australia and New Zealand. India's participation coincides with the Spain-India Dual Year 2026.
Director Menene Gras Balaguer aims to establish AFFBCN as a leading international showcase for Asian cinema and to attract new audiences, highlighting the vitality and talent of Asian film industries and their role in fostering cultural diversity.
The Focus India program will present twelve contemporary independent films from the country, produced between 2025 and 2026. Additionally, a Retrospective of twelve titles will explore Western perspectives on India from 1946 to 2023.
The opening film will be If on a Winter’s Night (2025) by Indian director Sanju Surendran, addressing universal themes like internal migration. The special session on October 31 will feature We are nothing at all (2025) from Hong Kong, directed by Herman Yau. The closing film on November 1 will be the Korean drama Journey There (2025) by independent director and screenwriter Kim Jin-yu.
Screenings will primarily take place at Cinemes Girona and other collaborating venues, with some titles available on the FILMIN platform. Competitive sections include: Official, Official Panorama, Discoveries, NETPAC, and Special Section. The Nuevas Miradas space will feature students from ECIB and ESCAC.
The festival will award prizes for best film, direction, and screenplay in each competitive section, decided by professional juries. A total of 259 film submissions were received for the official programming of AFFBCN 2026.
The event is supported by the Fundació ACS, the Institut Català de les Empreses Culturals (ICEC), the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona (ICUB), the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Brussels (HKETO), and the Fundació Institut Confuci de Barcelona (FICB), among other institutions.
