A motion passed this Thursday in the Catalan Parliament has called on the Catalan Government to "reach a consensus" with the Catalan Film Academy "on the necessary strategies to define a specific category for films spoken entirely in Catalan within the Gaudí Awards." The motion, which included various items related to cultural policies, was presented by the Junts parliamentary group and approved with the votes of Junts, ERC, Comuns, CUP, and Aliança Catalana. In statements to ARA, the president of the Film Academy, Judith Colell, expressed her "great surprise" at the Parliament's demand. "The Gaudí Awards have had, since their first edition, a category dedicated exclusively to films in their original Catalan version, and it is the awards' flagship category," Colell pointed out. "And we didn't invent the original Catalan version. We abide by the regulations set by the Generalitat (Catalan Government)." The criteria that determine what is considered the original Catalan version stem from the Film Law that the Parliament of Catalonia approved in 2010 and which was drafted by the Ministry of Culture, then headed by Joan Manuel Tresserras.

What is a Catalan film? Intuitively, we might say a film spoken in Catalan. But in an increasingly diglossic reality marked by migration, what happens when cinema adopts a naturalistic approach to capture the mosaic of languages ​​and cultures that coexist in our societies? Can we continue to speak in the singular of the language from a movie? An interesting example of this situation is Very farGerard Oms's magnificent directorial debut, an autobiographically inspired story about an Espanyol fan who, after accompanying the team on a trip to the Netherlands, decides not to return to Catalonia and stay to live in Utrecht, where nobody knows or speaks the local language.

Of the 114 films released in commercial theaters in Catalonia in 2025, only 20 were shown in the Valencian Community (17.5%), 17 in Andorra (14.9%), and 16 in the Balearic Islands (14%). There was no trace of 85% of the films, according to a report by Plataforma per la Llengua (Platform for the Language), published just before the 18th Gaudí Awards. Only two films were released in all territories, and not simultaneously. Wolfgang and Sea and skyIf we remove Andorra from the equation, which has a different distribution system than the Spanish state, there would only be five films that could be seen simultaneously in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, four in their original version and one in a dubbed version, theanime of Detective Conan. In fact, outside the Principality, films dubbed in Catalan are practically nonexistent. In Andorra, however, where Catalan is the only official language, Catalan dubbing is the norm, with the biggest box office hits arriving there.

On Monday night, TV3 and Canal 33 counterprogrammed with two documentary offerings. On the one hand, the second season of [title of documentary] premiered. The great illusionThe documentary series about the history of Catalan cinema. The first season, directed by Àlex Gorina and Esteve Riambau, premiered in January 2019. Fortunately, the program's tagline is accurate: it's an "intermittent narrative." In this new season, the first two interviewees have sadly passed away. Actress Marisa Paredes and director Josep Maria Forn died in 2024 and 2021, respectively. The series may have been tucked away in a drawer for some time and was perhaps retrieved due to an emergency. The program strives to maintain the magical and meticulously crafted visual style of its beginnings and remains a very good format both visually and in terms of content. The script always prioritizes the social and political context to emphasize that Catalan cinema is not an isolated phenomenon, and, when appropriate, it knows how to connect the past with the present. It has an informative spirit but never descends into a tedious encyclopedic narrative nor does it operate solely through chronological inertia. The new season begins in the 1960s, in the midst of the dictatorship. The narration of actor Francesc Orella guides us through the country, in a kind of road movie which showcases Catalonia as a location for international film shoots. The series skillfully incorporates film clips and magnificent archival footage, and above all, highlights key figures in Catalan cinema. The great illusion It's more than just a program: it's a theoretical corpus worth organizing and immortalizing.

Who was Josefina Güell? Perhaps it's a good idea for her to introduce herself: "Hello, my name is Josefina Güell Saumell. I was born in Barcelona on April 9, 1925. My father was a cabinetmaker and did quite well for himself, but in 1936, when the Civil War broke out, he had to leave everything to go to the front. Enric and I. The poor woman had a very hard time, and because of that, she sent us to boarding school in Tiana. We had a good time there; we had a teacher who recited poems to us at night." She herself wrote it down, a restless woman, a versatile and enterprising actress; her memories were clear, her memory unerringly dictating the birth of her precocious artistic vocation. This year she would have turned one hundred. She came very close. She died in Barcelona on January 17 of last year, a few months before her 99th birthday. Her daughter Silvia remembers that she remained clear-headed until the end, as well as full of vitality, eager to go to the theater, and possessing a consuming passion for it. a benign illness that plagued her throughout her long life. Last May 26th, the Teatre Romea hosted the well-deserved tribute that the Catalan theater community paid her. Honors were also bestowed upon another beloved and historic actress, Mercè Bruquetas, also a centenarian this year, 2025, but who passed away years ago, in 2007.

As a result of his short film Beef (2019), which starred a trap singer, director Ingride Santos (Barcelona, ​​1983) came into contact with the scene freestyle And she was completely fascinated by the energy and purity of those rap competitions where young people face off armed with improvised verses over a hip-hop beat: "They're self-organized battles where 200 to 300 people gather on the weekend, something very ephemeral that can't be capitalized on or recorded." Santos began looking for a girl to build her feature film debut around and soon discovered Latifa Drame (24 years old), known as La Tiniebla (The Darkness) in the art world, one of the young stars of that scene she wanted to capture. "She had only been to a couple of battles and already had 300 people hanging on her every word and celebrating each one." punchline and a compilation on YouTube with the best moments."

A large harvest of nominations for Catalan cinema at the European Film Awards (EFA), announced this Tuesday. Sirado, by Oliver Laxe; Afternoons of solitudeby Albert Serra, and Olivia and the Invisible EarthquakeIrene Iborra's film has garnered a total of eight nominations for the awards to be presented by the European Film Academy in Berlin on January 17. This represents an unprecedented success for Catalan cinema: the year ofAlcarràsFor example, Carla Simón's film was nominated in only two categories: best film and best screenplay. In contrast, Sirado It has four nominations: best film, best director (Oliver Laxe), original screenplay (Oliver Laxe and Santiago Fillol) and best actor (Sergi López). The actor from Vilanova had already won the award for best European actor in 2000 for Harry, a friend who loves youIf he were to win the award again, he would join the club of doubles winners that includes Mads Mikkelsen, Daniel Auteuil and Toni Servillo.

The Gaudí Cycle Educational Project continues to grow with a clear mission: to bring Catalan cinema closer to boys and girls between 12 and 18 years old from the towns that are members of the Gaudí Cycle network, promoting culture, creativity, and the habit of enjoying and learning through cinema. Beyond simply watching films and reflecting and discussing social, cultural, and human issues that permeate the stories we see on screen, the project invites young people to discover the cinema in their town, which they have often never visited.

With over twenty-five years of experience as a filmmaker, Cesc Gay (Barcelona, ​​​​1967) is one of the most reliable directors in Catalan cinema, an author with a passion for storytelling and a solid talent for creating characters and writing dialogue. In My friend Eva, which opens this Friday, puts aside the bewildered men who have worked so well for her in the past and accompanies a married woman (Nora Navas) with children on the most unexpected adventure of her life: reinventing herself at nearly 50 as a single woman in search of love. It is one of her most playful films, a bittersweet comedy with a dramatic undertone that champions second chances and romance in the age of Tinder.

Jaume Claret Muxart (Barcelona, ​​​​1998) is part of the first promotion of Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola in San Sebastián, and in just a few years has managed to position himself on the international scene with short films such as She and I (2020) and The Donau, (2023). This Friday sees the release of the first feature film, Strange river, in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival. The film will also be shown at the San Sebastián Film Festival and will be released on October 3. Shot on 16mm film along the Danube, Strange river Based on the bicycle trips Claret took with his family as a child, it unfolds as a fictional story about adolescence, transformation, and family ties. It stars Nausicaa Bonnín, Jordi Oriol, and newcomer Jan Monter.

With his previous short, Suc de síndria (2019), Irene Moray (Barcelona, 1992) won both the Goya and the Gaudí and was nominated for the European Film Awards, more than enough to mark her as a great promise of Catalan cinema. Six years later, and while working on her first feature film, Moray premieres a new short film at the Locarno Film Festival, Plankton, which tells the story of the reunion of two university friends in Cap de Creus. Repressed emotions, the liberating energy of sex, and the sensual dimension of nature are still present in Moray's films, which this time add a magical and poetic element to his images.

Film production in Catalonia experienced one of its best years ever in 2024. This is the summary of the study prepared by the Audiovisual Production Observatory (OPA) of Pompeu Fabra University, which was published this Thursday by the Catalan Film Academy, coinciding with its traditional Summer Festival, which is being held at night in the Tres Xemeneies building, the future headquarters of the hub audiovisual Catalonia Media City. According to theReport on film production in Catalonia 2025Last year, a record number of 114 qualified films was reached, and the number of medium-budget productions tripled thanks to a significant increase in public investment. This figure is expected to reach 15% in 2023 and 15% compared to 2022. However, it should be noted that the industry's good performance goes beyond the Catalan framework and is a national phenomenon. Therefore, the specific weight of the Catalan industry in Spanish cinema as a whole has remained stable at around 30% since 2016, far from the four-figure number of qualified films. Incidentally, they do not include all films produced in Catalonia, since they exclude, for example, television films and short films. €18 this year. This figure triples the number of productions of this type in 2023, when only six titles enjoyed this budget. The Catalan Institute of Cultural Companies of the Generalitat (Catalan Institute of Cultural Companies) of the Generalitat (Generalitat). The increase in state contributions to the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts is more moderate, growing by 17% (67%) compared to 2023. Catalan film revenue is projected to reach €23.5 million in 2024, representing an even more significant year-on-year increase of 92%. The titles that have boosted Catalan production are House on fire and The 47, which they did Historical box office records for films in the original Catalan version, and the animated film Buffalo KidsThese three films account for 53% of the box office takings for Catalan films released in theaters in 2024. However, these are not record figures, and are still below the results obtained by Catalan cinema in 2022, when Tadeo Jones: The Emerald Table It became the commercial locomotive of Catalan cinema with 11.79 million euros at the box office.

Even before it is released, Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake It is already a milestone: it is the first Catalan animated feature film in stop-motion Made in Barcelona, it is the first film with this technique in Catalonia directed by a woman, the screenwriter, producer and director Irene Iborra. The film has also just celebrated its premiere within the competition at the Annecy Film Festival (France), the Mecca of animated cinema, and is guaranteed a theatrical release this fall.

The Catalan Film Academy's Gaudí Cycle consolidates its commitment to inclusion and the democratization of culture by promoting new initiatives that place accessibility as one of the project's top priorities. The Gaudí Cycle—which includes the deaf and hard of hearing—has reached 80% of the theaters participating in its circuit that screen in Blu-ray format. The project boasts a stable film program that guarantees this level of accessibility in all its screenings.

The day after winning the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Oliver Laxe (Paris, 1982) returned to his chosen land, the Ancares mountain range, to project Sirado in Navia de Suarna, a small town in Lugo with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants. A gesture that explains much about this Galician filmmaker, forged between Galicia, Barcelona, and Morocco, who speaks throughout the interview in the Catalan he learned while studying at Pompeu Fabra University. Sirado, which opens this Friday, is one of the cinematic sensations of the season.

The Trump administration report that justifies the imposition of the tariffs we've been talking about all the time it day It includes cinema in Catalan, Basque, and Galician in its list of trade barriers.The report was prepared by the US government's Department of Commerce and is titled precisely that, Foreign trade barriers, although it could also have been titled Memorial of grievances, given that—as could not be otherwise—Trump also practices victimhood and whining, and he does so in his own pachydermic way. Regarding the issue at hand, there is a paragraph in the report in question instills these drops of rat poison against linguistic diversity: "Every three days that a film from a non-EU country is shown, another one from the language in the Spanish language must be shown." In favor of the report's authors, we note the use of the construction "official language of Spain other than Spanish" to refer to Catalan, Basque, and Galician, instead of "co-official language," as many media outlets around us insist on repeating.

Breaking historic box office records is becoming a habit for Catalan-language cinema. The latest milestone has been achieved by Javier Ruiz Caldera's family comedy Wolfgang, which in just two days of theater release has already grossed around €430,000 and is now number 1 at the box office. According to expert projections, the film will have grossed around €650,000 by the end of the weekend.

It's almost predictable that a film about a child piano prodigy begins with the protagonist playing like a virtuoso, but it's not that the piano he's playing is the one in a funeral home where the child is trying to process the fact that his mother has just died. Wolfgang, which premieres this Friday, is the big commercial bet of Catalan cinema in 2025, a friendly family comedy with an openly popular vocation that, however, addresses issues often taboo in this type of cinema, such as grief, mental health, and suicide. All these themes were already in the eponymous book by Laia Aguilar, which adapts the film and which "excited" the director Javier Ruiz Caldera when he read to her: "I have two daughters and I go to the movies a lot with them, and I miss movies that both they and I can enjoy, movies about characters that deal with emotions and somewhat complex themes and that then, when we leave the theater, give rise to a conversation."

It's almost predictable that a film about a child piano prodigy begins with the protagonist playing like a virtuoso, but it's not that the piano he's playing is the one in a funeral home where the child is trying to process the fact that his mother has just died. Wolfgang, which premieres this Friday, is the big commercial bet of Catalan cinema in 2025, a friendly family comedy with an openly popular vocation that, however, addresses issues often taboo in this type of cinema, such as grief, mental health, and suicide. All these themes were already in the eponymous book by Laia Aguilar, which adapts the film and which "excited" the director Javier Ruiz Caldera when he read to her: "I have two daughters and I go to the movies a lot with them, and I miss movies that both they and I can enjoy, movies about characters that deal with emotions and somewhat complex themes and that then, when we leave the theater, give rise to a conversation."