As the name suggests, Xcéntric explores the more unusual, bizarre and evocative side of filmmaking. The "cinema of the CCCB" focuses on experimental film, auteur cinema and creative documentaries. The film screenings are the cornerstone of an overall project dedicated to the study and promotion of a largely unknown form of cinema.

For over a decade, Xcéntric has fostered a growing interest within the museum world for this kind of cinema. "The Xcéntric archive is a model for how cinema should be shown within the context of a museum," proclaimed Stuart Comer of the Tate Modern, showing the international scope of the CCCB's initiative.

The Filmoteca de Catalunya - the city's cinematheque - shows a diverse programme of historical, classic and independent cinema and organises various parallel activities like seminars and round table discussions about different film-related topics. In addition to its cinemas, the Filmoteca has a large archive and an extensive library dedicated to the seventh art. It also participates in most of the city's film festivals by providing screening facilities.

For more information and all programme details please visit the Filmoteca's website.

You can also receive programme updates and all the latest news by visiting the Filmoteca on Facebook.

Barcelona is a great city for lovers of the seventh art. In addition to cinemas showing independent new releases, a great second-run cinema and the wonderful Filmoteca, the city also has an excellent art house cinema: the Méliès Cinema.

Located in the Eixample, this outstanding little cinema has been going strong for 12 years, showing classic, auteur, independent and art films. Barcelona is a city where, despite DVD rentals and internet downloads, there is still a strong cinema-going audience that understands the magic of seeing films the way they are meant to be seen: in a darkened room, in the company of others, on a big screen.

Founded by Carles Balagué, the Méliès Cinema also organises film series and special retrospectives, often dedicated to cinematic masters that are otherwise impossible to catch on the big screen. All films are screened in original version with Spanish subtitles. Check out their website for film listings and up-to-date information. A gem for film buffs and a valentine to great filmmaking.

Carrer Villarroel, 102

08011 Barcelona

934 510 051

I remember thinking that MECAL was a bit of a lost festival, back when it still played during the Mercé. Lost in the sense of being swamped by the overwhelming Mercé festivities, and lost in lacking a solid identity. Well, it looks like MECAL has overcome its growing pains and found its way. The festival boasts an impressive programme, whittled down from thousands of submissions. Astoundingly international in scope and varied in terms of narrative and style, from experimental animation and oblique visual poems to motion graphics and straight-up family drama.

The fiction sections are marked by a growing trend amongst film festivals in which animation and live action films are shown together, rather than split into separate categories. I'm all for this. L'Alternativa has been doing this for a few years now, and I love how much more surprising and richer the sessions are because of it. After all, a good story is a good story, regardless of whether your protagonist is a human being or an animated monkey.

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Sitges might get all the big-name movies and a wildly popular zombie walk, and In Edit might rock the city with the mad lives of rock stars, but there's only one festival where you'll get to see films you might never see anywhere else: l'Alternativa Independent Film Festival of Barcelona. For over a decade, the festival has been faithful to its founding principles and sought out films that embody innovation and creative independence, take risks and aren't afraid to critically reflect on important and often contentious issues.

If I look back at all the past editions of l'Alternativa, I realise how much the festival has enriched my understanding of cinema. It has introduced me to filmmakers I might never have discovered otherwise, to narratives from countries whose filmmaking tradition I had never encountered before, to experimental languages that broadened my idea of visual storytelling. The organisers of this usual, exciting festival go out of their way to showcase new or unknown directors and films made outside of the mainstream circuits. Now in its 18th edition, the festival is all grown up and pursuing its cinematic goals with ever greater confidence and daring.

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If you love music, movies, have a fascination for the life and work of gifted artists or a morbid curiousity about the highs and lows of rockstar life then make sure you've got plenty of free time coming up, because In-Edit is back! Quite possibly Barcelona's most popular film festival - dedicated entirely to international music documentaries - In-Edit brings us a jam-packed programme of captivating, exhilerating, inspiring, heartbreaking and outrageous stories about the vivid and often eccentric existence of some of the most talented people the world has ever known. The festival kicks off on Friday, October 28th with Michael Nyman in Progress and keeps going for 10 days to the sound of punk, flamenco, hip hop, acid house, Mozart and a whole lot more! Pick up your pass to the strangest backstage universe ever captured on film (or video)...

The In-Edit Problem or How to be in many different places at the same time

I always have the same problem with the In-Edit festival programme. I sit down to compile a list of films to see and end up circling almost everything! This year is no exception. With films like Passione, helmed by John Turturro who goes on an adventure into the passionate and streetwise world of Neapolitan music, or Color Me Obsessed: A Film About the Replacements by Gorman Bechard... without music, original footage and zero appearances by the band (!), the festival once again covers so much ground, I might have to spend the next 10 days sitting in a dark room.