Dart Festival 2025: Barcelona prepares for an immersive journey into contemporary art through film

This December, Barcelona once again becomes a meeting point for cinema that explores the pulse of contemporary art. From December 10 to 14, Dart, the International Documentary Film Festival on Art, celebrates its 9th edition with a program dedicated to visual culture, radical artistic practices, and the narratives that shape our understanding of the world. This year, the festival also inaugurates a new venue in the heart of Gràcia: Mooby Bosque Cinema.

While Dart has already launched preliminary activities in November, the spotlight now shifts to the events taking place from December 1 onward, when the festival unveils its most anticipated program.

What’s coming from December 1: highlights of the 2025 edition

🔥 December 3 — Art, cinema, and Pan-African perspectives at the Macba

In connection with Projecting a Black Planet, the exhibition celebrating the museum’s 30th anniversary, Dart presents a free event blending film, conversation, and critical thought.

Artist Wendimagegn Belete and political scientist Saiba Bayo will engage with the audience following the screening of Future History: An Untold Legacy of Ethiopian Resistance, a documentary that amplifies voices erased by Eurocentric narratives and illuminates a crucial chapter of antifascist resistance.

📍 Macba Auditorium (Meier Building), 7 p.m. — Free entry with registration.

December 10–14 — The core of the festival

🎬 December 10 — Opening Night: activism and art through ASCO

Dart opens its 2025 edition with the European premiere of ASCO: Without Permission, directed by Travis Gutiérrez.
The film revisits the groundbreaking Chicano collective that challenged mainstream Hollywood in the ’70s and ’80s through performance, provocation, and radical visual language.

After the screening, artist San Cha will present a live performance created exclusively for Dart — one of the festival’s must-see moments.

🎶 December 13 — Closing Night: the masked universe of The Residents

In collaboration with In-Edit, Dart closes its 9th edition with The Residents: Barking in the Dark, a new film by Marie Losier.

Part portrait, part playful reverie, the documentary immerses viewers in the enigmatic world of the legendary avant-garde band that has spent over five decades reinventing sound, identity, and performance.

📷 Memory and visual legacy: ‘Peter Hujar’s Day’

Presented with Moritz Feed Dog, this new documentary by Ira Sachs centers on an extended 1974 conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and writer Linda Rosenkrantz.

It serves as an intimate snapshot of New York’s creative and marginal communities—where figures such as Allen Ginsberg and Susan Sontag crossed paths—and reveals a city on the cusp of profound cultural transformation.

🎥 Dart at Home: streaming program on CaixaForum+ (from December 18)

For audiences eager to continue exploring after the festival, Dart will present an exclusive selection of documentaries by Illa Beka and Louise Lemoine on CaixaForum+ from December 18 to January 18.

The program includes Koolhaas Houselife, Tokyo Ride, and Barbicania: three films where architecture becomes an intimate choreography of lived spaces.

🏆 Dart Awards 2025

Bookstore Laie once again sponsors the awards for Best National Documentary and Best International Documentary, each valued at €2,000.
The awards will be presented during the closing night on December 13.

With this edition, Dart reaffirms its commitment to bringing audiences closer to the global pulse of contemporary art through film, offering stories and perspectives that challenge conventions and expand the ways we engage with the visual world. The 2025 program promises to be an essential encounter for art lovers, cinephiles, and anyone curious about the narratives reshaping our cultural landscape.