The Badalona Film Festival brings cinema to cultural venues and institutions across several metropolitan cities: Teatre Zorrilla, El Círcol and Teatre Margarida Xirgu (Badalona), Institut Français (Barcelona), Cinema Catalunya (Terrassa) and Cinema Edison (Granollers). It is an exercise in making culture accessible to everyone — admission is free — and reaches its fullest expression through screenings held in the city’s neighbourhoods, in local libraries.
Local cinemas, just around the corner
The Teatre Zorrilla is the festival’s flagship venue. This historic municipal theatre opened in 1868. The big screen is no stranger to the building: it operated as a cinema between 1905 and 1970. During its final years as a cinema, it was known as Cine Aya. Most of the festival’s screenings take place at the Zorrilla, which also hosts, of course, the opening and closing ceremonies.
El Círcol is a Badalona cultural institution with a long tradition of theatre training and promotion dating back to 1879. Its stage has become a hub for all kinds of artistic expression, and it hosts some of the FILMETS screenings, including Badalona En Curt and Manifest. It also hosts FILMETS LAB.
The Teatre Margarida Xirgu is the venue dedicated to making cinema as accessible as possible. The venue is closed to the public so that special education schools can attend screenings with their students and present their own creations. Three of these works will be screened for the first time.
The festival’s closest connection with every corner of the city comes through its libraries (Sant Roc, Can Casacuberta, Lloreda, Pomar, Canyadó i Casagemes Joan Argenté and Llefià Xavier Soto), which become screening rooms with children and young people as their main audience.
Barcelona, Granollers and Terrassa
The Institut Français has been collaborating with the FILMETS Festival for years. This institution, dedicated to promoting French language and culture and based in Barcelona since 1921, hosts FILMETS Family screenings as well as a selection of short films produced in France.
The Cinema Catalunya is a century-old cultural venue (1916) and the only cinema currently operating in Terrassa. Twenty-six years ago, the city council acquired it and prevented it from disappearing. It hosts the festival’s darkest screening programme: Fantasy and Horror.
The Cinema Edison in Granollers is a municipal venue that opened its doors eight years ago. Its name, however, pays tribute to the former Sala Edison (1906). The opening of the new cinema brought a cinema back to the city centre twelve years after the last commercial cinema in the area had closed. This FILMETS outpost hosts family screenings.
