The Festival

​​The Brain Film Fest is an international film festival about the brain steered by the Pasqual Maragall Foundation and co-organized by Minimal Films. It uses audiovisual creation and scientific dissemination to show people in an accessible manner the multifaceted reality of the brain, from its capabilities to its disorders and conditions. It is the only festival of its kind in Europe and has been held annually since 2018 at the Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB) as part of Brain Awareness Week, a global campaign to increase knowledge about the brain as well as the progress and benefits of research.

Mission

  • To bring together international film proposals and organize discussions, workshops, talks and informative activities related to the brain.
  • To become a leading international reference for the creation and dissemination of information on the brain.
  • To present the Premi Solé Tura Awards, which promote audiovisual content on the brain and its dissemination, and to award the Premi Especial Brain Film Fest Award to recognize the work of artists promoting a change in the cultural discourse on the how the brain is perceived and its capabilities.
  • To keep the general public informed about this fascinating human organ, both its disorders and great potential, as well as how it affects our daily lives.

History

In memory of Jordi Solé Tura, the Solé Tura family decided to create an award to raise awareness, educate and give greater value to the act of living and coexisting with neurodegenerative disorders, providing a more global vision of dementia. Therefore, coinciding with World Alzheimer’s Day (September 21) in 2009, Albert Solé (Minimal Films), the Uszheimer Foundation and Nanouk Films, with the collaboration of ESCAC (Cinema and Audiovisual School of Catalonia), presented the Premi Solé Tura Awards for newly created short films about Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative disorders associated with aging.

The scope of the awards gradually expanded until including short films that broadly deal with the brain, its disorders and also its limitless capabilities and knowledge.

The Pasqual Maragall Foundation joined the initiative in 2011 and, together with the Uszheimer Foundation and Minimal Films, set up a film festival in 2018 that programs all manner of feature films about the brain and also includes a short film competition. The festival’s days were also extended to include talks and roundtables that serve to deepen and disseminate knowledge about this organ to the general public.

The festival currently includes several days of films and activities and comprises an Executive Board made up of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation and Minimal Films.