09/04/2020 - Owing to the current health crisis, the Barcelona-based gathering is moving onto the Filmin website this year, retaining its modern spirit and offering an exhilarating selection of European films

Having opted not to cancel outright or alter its dates, the D’A Film Festival Barcelona is keeping its annual date with its loyal audience of film buffs and is therefore set to unspool between 30 April and 10 May 2020, but online: its 47 features and 20 short films will be viewable via the Filmin website. “We’re going to put on an extra-special digital version of D’A. It’s been a case of force majeure, but we’re happy with the decision we’ve made. It’s making us a bit giddy, but it’s the only thing we could do if we didn’t want to throw away months’ worth of work – and yes, we’re very excited,” remarked Carlos R Ríos, the director of the festival.

With a retrospective dedicated to Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner (whose latest, unsettling work Little Joe [+see also:
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interview: Jessica Hausner
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trailer
film profile], the feature debut by short filmmaker David Moragas (Boyfriend), who lives in New York, D’A is still maintaining its editorial policy of circulating and supporting the most independent, edgy, innovative, personal, and up-and-coming cinema. In fact, the Talents Award – valued at €10,000 – will still be handed out to the best film helmed by a director who has made fewer than three works to date.

D’A 2020 will open with the French production On a Magical Night [+see also:
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interview: Christophe Honoré
film profile], directed by Christophe Honoré and starring the charismatic Chiara Mastroianni (an actress who was awarded for this performance at Cannes), and its various sections contain gems such as the Spanish premiere of Oh Mercy! [+see also:
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interview: Arnaud Desplechin
film profile] by Arnaud Desplechin (César Award for Best Actor for its lead, Roschdy Zem) and the British documentary Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin [+see also:
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film profile] by tireless adventurer Werner Herzog, who pays tribute to the titular great author, a friend of Herzog’s who died after falling victim to another pandemic, that of AIDS, in 1989.

Besides a programme brimming with other fantastic European titles such as Monsters. [+see also:
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interview: Marius Olteanu
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interview: Nathalie Biancheri
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interview: Juris Kursietis
film profile] (Latvia/Belgium/Lithuania/France) by Juris Kursietis, among many others, viewers will also be able to sample the most indie offerings in Spanish cinema during the online iteration of D’A. Among these flicks, we would recommend the deliriously funny The Queen of the Lizards [+see also:
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film profile] by Burnin' Percebes, starring an utterly devoted Bruna Cusí and Javier Botet; My Mexican Bretzel [+see also:
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interview: Nuria Giménez
film profile], an excellent documentary by Núria Giménez; the medium-length film El corazón rojo by the ever-entertaining Marc Ferrer (La maldita primavera [+see also:
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film profile]); the autofiction La educación sentimental, the debut by Jorge Juárez; and the minimalistic comedy Violeta no coge el ascensor [+see also:
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film profile] by fellow first-timer Mamen Díaz.

(Translated from Spanish)