Category: Best Documentary – 2026 ARFF Barcelona

Original Film Title: The Mountain of Jongbok

Director’s Name: Sunyoung Kim

Writer’s Name: Sunyoung Kim

Producer: Jinmi In

Country of Origin: South Korea

Country of Filming : South Korea

Language: Korean

Runtime: 1 hour 18 minutes

Film Description:

In an era defined by loss, all that remained for painter Kim Jongbok was the quiet, persistent act of lifting her brush.

This film traces the trajectory of the “mountain” she painted throughout her life, revealing how a human life is accumulated and ultimately endures as image.

As a wife, a mother, and an artist, the time she endured overlaps within a vast landscape. Through the repetition of brushstrokes, pauses, and the continuation of time, the mountain is no longer an external subject, but the very form of a life that has passed through time.

Having lived through an era that went largely unrecorded, Kim Jongbok sustained her own language between art and life. The presence of a forgotten woman artist quietly emerges through the enduring image of the mountain she devoted her life to painting.

(WINNER)

Original Film Title: NADO

Director’s Name: Daniele Farina

Writer’s Name: Daniele Farina, Massimo Canuti, Roberto Farina

Producer: Daniele Farina, Matteo Mavero

Country of Origin: Italy

Country of Filming: Italy

Language: Italian

Runtime: 1 hour 8 minutes

Film Description:

NADO is an intimate and powerful journey through the life and work of
one of the greatest Italian sculptors of the twentieth century. A
story of resistance and courage, a human parable of
will and joy that spans a whole century.
Nado Canuti has faced the difficulties of life since he was young with tenacity and vision, transforming every obstacle into
material to be sculpted. The story of a man who with three fingers
shaped his destiny.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Only YUDANA

Director’s Name: Ami Mochizuki

Writer’s Name: Ami Mochizuki

Producer: Ami Mochizuki

Country of Origin: Japan

Country of Filming: Indonesia

Language: English, Indonesian, Japanese

Runtime: 39 minutes 46 seconds

Film Description:

Ogura, 74, met a man named Yudana in Bali through surfing when she was in her 20s.
A human documentary that talks about the friendship and bonds with the friends he met through him, and about the “god-like man” YUDANA.

(ENVISION AWARD WINNER)

Original Film Title: Alignment – A True Story of Surrender

Director’s Name: Adam Charles Shereston

Writer’s Name: Adam Charles Shereston

Producer: Sally Page

Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Country of Filming: France, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom

Language: English

Runtime: 60 minutes 14 seconds

Film Description:

Former British Royal Family game keeper Adam Shereston gets led into the world of horse whispering and healing after he hears a mysterious wise voice whisper that he is immortal.

Haunted for years by a deep inner restlessness caused by his father’s unexpected death and exhausted from chasing worldly achievement, former Royal Family gamekeeper Adam Shereston is called on a soul-searching mission of Surrender. Working for the Queen had offered it’s own trials and tribulations but nothing could prepare him for a sudden spiritual awakening where he first hears a wise voice whisper that he is immortal. Consumed by anxiety and grief and wrestling with doubt, this voice surprisingly leads Adam into a deep connection with horses. Through their silent wisdom and unspoken partnership, Adam discovers a mirror for his soul and they show him a powerful path to healing his inner wounds and help dissolve his emotional armour. During this time, defeat becomes his deliverance as God slowly reveals himself further, shattering old patterns and false identities. From confusion to clarity, Adam realises a deeper reality and learns to walk in truth, discovering his purpose by handing it over to a greater unwavering love than himself.

Alignment is the powerful autobiographical story of Adam’s spiritual journey through trauma into transcendence. A living testament to the truth of the transformative power of awakening and spiritual surrender with a powerful message for the modern world.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: WIKILEAKS. THE ALACANT CONNECTION

Director’s Name: HELENA SÁNCHEZ BEL

Writer’s Name: VALENTI FIGUERES JORGE, HELENA SANCHEZ BEL

Producer: VALENTÍ FIGUERES JORGE

Country of Origin: Spain

Country of Filming: Spain, United Kingdom

Language: Catalan, English, Spanish

Runtime: 59 minutes 4 seconds

Film Description:

What do a Eurovision presenter, an Ecuadorian family in Alicante, a computer engineer, an apartment in Vila Joiosa, the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, the furniture of Encarna Sánchez, Telecinco, Ana Rosa and the CIA have in common?

We think of Wikileaks as an international affair involving the US, the UK, Ecuador and Sweden. It seems that the fate of Julian Assange has nothing to do with our territory, but surprisingly his current situation directs us directly to Alicante, the Valencian Country and the Spanish state.

On April 11, 2019, Julian Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012, was captured by the British police and taken to Belmarsh prison.

He has now been incommunicado for two years and an English court is trying to decide whether or not to accept the United States’ request for Assange’s extradition.

And it all started with a tweet.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: MALVINAS: LEGACY OF BLOOD

Director’s Name: Daniel Ponce

Writer’s Name: Daniel Ponce

Producer: Pablo Yotich

Country of Origin: Argentina

Country of Filming: Argentina

Language: Spanish

Runtime: 1 hour 6 minutes

Film Description:

More than forty years after the armed conflict in the Islas Malvinas, a group of Argentine veterans embarks on an unprecedented journey: to return to the land where they once fought—this time, accompanied by their children and grandchildren. For them, this trip is not only a reunion with the past but also an act of passing down memory—an opportunity for new generations to understand history through the voices of those who lived it.
Through a deeply human lens, Malvinas: Legacy of Blood reconstructs the experience of these soldiers, balancing the memory of horror with the pursuit of peace. The film immerses us in moving testimonies, where stories of battles, sacrifice, and loss intertwine with the fresh, curious perspectives of the young girls accompanying them. These girls—a daughter and a granddaughter of veterans—represent the future: a generation that inherits not only the pain of war but also the responsibility of keeping history alive.
The documentary features never-before-seen footage of the Islas Malvinas, achieving a cinematic milestone by being the first to film at night in the Darwin Cemetery, capturing an atmosphere of overwhelming intimacy. It also includes 2D animation sequences that bring to life events never before depicted in such detail—from the sinking of the ARA General Belgrano to critical moments on the front lines. These sequences complement the veterans’ accounts, allowing viewers to vividly and emotionally visualize scenes that had previously existed only in the memories of those who lived them.
More than a war documentary, Malvinas: Legacy of Blood is a portrait of memory, sacrifice, and identity—a universal story about the inheritance of the past and the power of testimony in shaping the future.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Velintonia 3

Director’s Name: Javier Vila Galarza

Writer’s Name: Javier Vila Galarza, Leticia Salvago Soto

Producer: Virginia Moriche Tirado, José Antonio Hergueta

Country of Origin: Spain

Country of Filming: Spain

Language: Spanish

Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes 49 seconds

Film Description:

A chimera. A symbol. A creative refuge in dark times. An oasis of freedom. The literature of the 20th century silenced between its decadence and abandonment. Velintonia, the house at number 3, cries out to return to what it was. Let the poets return.

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: Music of our Neighbors

Director’s Name: Juniper Hill, Cornelia Günauer, Steffen Boseckert

Writer’s Name: Juniper Hill, Cornelia Günauer

Producer: Juniper Hill

Country of Origin: Germany

Country of Filming: Germany

Language: German

Runtime: 1 hour 25 minutes 13 seconds

Film Description:

Nestled amongst the vineyards in the Main River Valley lies the picturesque German town of Würzburg. What musics do the people of this provincial Franconian city play, sing, and dance to? With a third of the 130,000 residents having a migration background, diverse traditions from across five continents can be heard in our neighbors’ homes. The feature film Music of Our Neighbors comprises a series of six intimate portraits of musicians and dancers in and around Würzburg who perform Spanish Flamenco dance, Canadian Métis music and indigenous rock, German accordion music, Indian Kathak and Bollywood dance, Arabic rap, African drumming, and Bolivian folkloric music and dance. These portraits reveal the often unrecognized cultural spectrum of rapidly diversifying provincial Europe. As individual artists share their struggles, joys, and life journeys, we see how music and dance are creatively used to cope with challenges, connect to heritage, build new communities, and bridge cultural divides.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: The Banned

Director’s Name: Haman Vaferi

Writer’s Name: Haman Vaferi

Producer: Haman Vaferi

Country of Origin: Iran, Islamic Republic of

Country of Filming: Iran, Islamic Republic of

Language: Persian

Runtime: 38 minutes

Film Description:

Haman, a musician whose works have been repeatedly censored, embarks on a personal and artistic journey to uncover the deeper implications of artistic suppression. Rather than remaining in exile, he returns to his homeland, where he engages in raw, unfiltered dialogues with other artists who have faced similar restrictions. Through archival footage, live performances, and firsthand testimonies, the film explores not only the external forces that silence artists but also the internal struggles they endure. Is censorship merely a political act, or does it embed itself into the psyche of those it targets? The Banned is an unflinching documentary that exposes the hidden mechanisms of control over artistic expression while giving voice to those who refuse to be silenced.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: The Colors of White

Director’s Name: Nil Pagès Xuclà, Martí Colomer Morera

Writer’s Name: Nil Pagès Xuclà, Martí Colomer Morera

Producer: Futuro Studio

Country of Origin: Spain

Country of Filming: Andorra, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Spain

Language: Catalan

Runtime: 1 hour 4 minutes

Film Description:

BARRACA is a visual artist and mountaineer who, in 1985, pioneered a unique discipline in the world: nivopainting, the art of painting on snow. After taking this form of expression to the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Andes, and the Himalayas for more than thirty-five years, he sets out on a new adventure. This time, he ascends to 2,700 meters of altitude to create his most monumental work: three kilometers of crosses marking a border.
But an act of vandalism destroys his entire creation. In the face of this adversity, Barraca decides to return to his roots to close the circle. Alongside his team of mountaineers, he climbs and paints the north face of the Pic de l’Infern, reaffirming his commitment to both art and nature