Documenta Madrid, the International Film Festival of the City of Madrid, organized by the Department of Culture, Tourism, and Sport, unveiled tonight at the Azcona room of Cineteca Madrid, the winning films of its 22nd edition. The awards ceremony was conducted by the Programming Committee, composed of Paola Buontempo, Javier H. Estrada, Ruth M. Somalo, and Florencia de Mugica, accompanied by Luis E. Parés, artistic director of Cineteca Madrid, and the jury members of the competing categories.
The jury awarded eight films, selected from the 13 titles in the National Competition, the 12 in the International Competition, and the four final projects, all chosen from the 1,604 films submitted this year, with the collaboration of 125 countries.
National Competition: Best Film and Fugas Award
The National Competition jury, consisting of Dario Oliveira, director of the Portuguese festival Porto/Post/Doc; Frédéric Maire, director of the Cinémathèque Suisse, and Alejandra Trelles, director of the International Film Festival of Uruguay (FCIU), awarded «Deuses de pedra,» by Iván Castañeiras (Spain, Portugal, France, 2025), the Best National Film Jury Prize, valued at 10,000 euros. The jury decided to honor this work «for its poetic narrative, the depth of empathy it weaves with its characters and territory, and the way it captures the passage of time and transformations, constructing a narrative of the present and its social reality.»
The same jury awarded the National Fugas Award for innovation and a willingness to cross borders, endowed with 5,000 euros, to the film «Recuerdos para el que por mí pregunte,» by Fernando Vílchez Rodríguez (Spain, 2025), «for bringing to the present and dignifying the victims of the Franco regime through their own letters to their relatives, giving a collective dimension to the particular destinies of this correspondence.»
Additionally, this jury granted a Special Mention to «Un dragón de cien cabezas,» by Helena Girón and Samuel M. Delgado (Spain, 2025), «for achieving, through the treatment of images and sound, an almost fantastical dimension.»
Furthermore, the film «Deuses de pedra,» by Iván Castañeiras, received the Young CineZeta Award presented by the members of CineZeta, the program that brings together young programmers for their first experience in film curation at Cineteca Madrid. The CineZeta jury wanted to acknowledge this film «for portraying rural exodus in a committed and sensitive way.»
International Competition: Best Film and Fugas Award
The Jury Prize for Best International Film, valued at 10,000 euros, went to «Monólogo colectivo,» by Jessica Sarah Rinland (Argentina, United Kingdom, 2024). The jury, comprised of Tania Pardo, director of CA2M and artistic curator; Romanian filmmaker Andrei Ujică, a reference in archival cinema and protagonist of one of the special screenings of this edition, and Daniel Mann, winner of the previous festival, highlighted that this film «poses the impossibility of a dialogue between humans and animal species, but does show the possibility of a subtle form of communication, capturing the life of a zoo in Argentina.»
The same jury awarded the International Fugas Award for innovation and a willingness to cross borders, endowed with 5,000 euros, to the film «Razeh-del,» by Maryam Tafakory (Iran, Italy, United Kingdom, 2024). According to the jury, it demonstrates «its ability to explore, through an image archive, new forms of editing, achieving a poetic result.»
Additionally, the jury granted a Special Mention to «7 Promenades avec Mark Brown,» by Vincent Barré and Pierre Creton (France, 2024).
Corte Final Award
In Corte Final, the section dedicated to films in an advanced stage of production or co-production in Spain, the jury comprised Rafael Alberola, filmmaker and screenwriter; María Oliva, distributor and founder of Sideral, and Luisa Espino, head of the Artistic Residency Center at Matadero Madrid. A selection of profiles that embodies the dialogue between tradition and innovation, industry and creativity.
This jury awarded the Corte Final Prize, valued at 4,000 euros, to «Atlas de la desaparición,» by Manuel Correa (Spain, Norway), «for the transcendence of a theme and a part of our history that has long been kept buried and its special relevance in these dark times of violence and forgetfulness, as well as for the rigor of its research that highlights the commitment of new generations, bringing together different artistic and scientific disciplines and techniques to create a film that transcends the cinematic event itself.» This work by Correa also received the Freak Agency Distribution Award, valued at 6,000 euros.
Cineteca Madrid Audience Award
The festival’s viewers, through their in-theater votes after screenings, contributed to the festival’s awards with their choice of the best national and international films. The Cineteca Madrid Audience Award in the International Competition, valued at 1,000 euros, went to «What We Ask of a Statue Is that It Doesn’t Move,» by Daphné Hérétakis (France, Greece, 2024), and in the National Competition, also valued at 1,000 euros, it was awarded to «Capitolio Vs. Capitolio,» by Javier Horcajada (Spain, 2025).
Musical Closure with Two Unreleased Gems
The festival’s closing featured two unreleased gems. First, the screening of «El Rastro» (Javier Aguirre, 1966), a film restored by the School of Cinematography and Audiovisual of the Community of Madrid (ECAM), which the filmmaker made about that neighborhood in Madrid just before starting his career as a feature film director and his parallel journey in Anticine.
Additionally, a valuable testimony of amateur cinema was presented: «El secreto de Alberto Portera» (David Plaza Sagrado, 2025), the unpublished records of neurologist and amateur filmmaker Alberto Portera about artists from the surroundings of the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art, restored by the March Foundation. The screening featured live music composed and performed by Abel Hernández Pozuelo.
Documenta Madrid 2025
Documenta Madrid, the International Film Festival of the City of Madrid, celebrated its 22nd edition from May 6 to 11, reaffirming its commitment to authorial documentary cinema, formal experimentation, and critical thinking. This year’s edition focused on the use of archival images as generators of new memories and heritage and on the potential of cinema as a tool for resistance, historical revision, and collective creation.
The festival, organized by Cineteca Madrid, once again became the meeting point for contemporary documentary and non-fiction cinema. The main venue was Cineteca Madrid, and the festival expanded to other locations such as the Spanish Film Archive, the National Museum Reina Sofía, La Casa Encendida, ECAM, and the Casa de México/UNAM-Spain Foundation.
The festival received support from ECAM, Madrid Film Office, Spanish Cultural Action (ACE), the Romanian Cultural Institute, the Center for Mexican Studies UNAM-Spain, the Embassy of Switzerland, the Juan March Foundation, and Bofill Architecture Workshop, among other national and international cultural entities. /
FUENTE
