Americana Film Fest: A breakdown of screenings and the winners

We (me and Davit Margaryan) had the privilege of attending the 2026 Americana Film Fest, a six-day event running from March 10 to March 15, bringing the best of North American independent cinema right to our doorstep in Barcelona. We received our invitation to this year’s edition following our recent award at the Subtravelling Film Fest. In this publication we will discuss our experience, the films we watched and the winners at the end.

Day 0: The Opening

The festival opened with the film Late Fame, which was the only screening of the day and one of the stars of the event, starring Willem Dafoe and Greta Lee with Martin Scorsese as an executive producer. The main venue, Cinemes Aribau, hosted this exclusive opening and served as a hub for other key showings later in the week. Other participating cinemas included Cinemes Girona, Espai Texas, Zumzeig Cine Cooperativa, Filmoteca de Catalunya, and Video Instan, each offering a mix of independent and retrospective programming over the following days. We skipped the opening day itself but watched Late Fame on the fourth day of the festival, so more on it later.

Day 1: Videoheaven

We kicked off our festival run with an ambitious documentary directed by Alex Ross Perry and narrated by Maya Hawke, attempting to capture the entire history of the video rental era from their rise to their complete disappearance. Unlike many traditional documentaries, Videoheaven is composed of over 100 films and shows that featured video stores, which notably was screened at Video Instan, the very first video rental shop in Barcelona, which is the only one still operating.

While the unique approach and the nostalgic subject really excited us, it must be noted that the documentary feels more like a long lecture on the subject rather than a film made for the audience, with an incredible running time of 3 hours. What? A 3-hour long documentary about video stores? That’s right, the film does not spare our time and practically shows all the scenes in the world where the video rental stores were mentioned. Although it was a bit repetitive closer to the end, and by that I mean the last two hours, we still managed to survive the screening and left the cinema with a little more knowledge about the video rental era.

Day 2: Splitsville

What is a non-monogamous relationship and does it even make any sense? These are some of the key questions that lie at the heart of the unapologetic comedy Splitsville, directed by Michael Angelo Covino and starring Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona, Kyle Marvin, and Covino himself. It was funny, it was silly, and overall well directed. If, unlike Davit Margaryan, you are a fan of those relationship and love triangle movies, then you should definitely check this out. Yeah, and also there was at least one member of the audience who had a hearty laugh at almost every joke in this film.

Day 3: Omaha

This one was designed to be an emotional heavy hitter. Directed by Cole Webley and starring John Magaro, it is a quiet and moving story about a desperate, grieving father taking his two young children on a cross-country road trip, exactly the kind of a movie that we would have missed if it wasn’t for the festival. In short, this is a movie where nothing really happens. I’m just kidding, or am I? At first it felt like one of those inspirational movies where a poor parent has to figure out things to survive. The structure of the film is literally this: they are going on a trip and at every stop, some little incident happens which emphasizes how poor this guy really is. Without spoiling the ending, I should love to mention that by the time the credits roll, it turns out to be something much more than a cliché inspirational movie. It is also worth noting that among the many movies that we watched during this festival, this one has arguably the best cinematography.

Day 4: Late Fame

As mentioned earlier, we finally caught the festival opener, Late Fame, on the fourth day. Directed by Kent Jones, it follows Willem Dafoe as an aging poet from the 1970s who is somehow discovered by a group of young and slightly spoiled poets who want to set up a show with him. This is definitely the most well-made movie among our watches, with a whole different level of filmmaking. It touches on deeper topics such as old vs. young, rich vs. poor, and asks what being a poet even means. It has a relatively short running time (especially relative to Videoheaven) of 1 hour and 30 minutes and tells a simple story with great sensitivity. It was our most enjoyable experience during the festival and is highly recommended to everyone.

Day 5: Predators

We wrapped up our Americana experience with an interesting and in a way unexpected documentary by David Osit, which takes an uncomfortable look back at the controversial 2000s reality show To Catch a Predator. The idea behind the show was to expose and publicly humiliate adults attempting to solicit minors online for sexual encounters, by baiting them to enter a house where the charismatic host of the show, Chris Hansen, would meet them. While the show enjoyed great popularity among a huge number of viewers, the controversial aspects of turning painful issues into an entertainment on TV eventually led to its cancellation. The documentary dives right into the controversy that surrounded the show, interviewing many people who were part of it, including its host, and creates an ultimate conversation on a topic which is definitely very relevant today.

Winners:

To complete our festival review, we should take a look at this year’s official winners. The awards were decided by several distinct groups, and for the sake of clarity, we have broken them down by category:

Jury Awards

• ACCEC Critics Award (Tops Section): The jury, consisting of Alberto Richart, Laura Blanco, and Francisco Javier Millán, gave the prize to The Plague by Charlie Polinger.
• Youth Jury Award (Next Section): Awarded to Albert Birney’s Obex by a jury composed of students from the film criticism workshop at La Casa del Cine.
• FCC Cineclub Award: Decided by Anna Beltran, Álvaro de Miguel, and Laia Borràs, the award for best film went to Rebuilding by Max Walker-Silverman.

ATRAE Subtitling Awards

• Best Subtitles in Catalan: A tie between Albert Vilalta for Blue Heron and Cristóbal Cabeza Cáceres for Twinless, as decided by jurors Júlia Fuentes, Marina Torruella, and Thais Buforn.
• Best Subtitles in Spanish: Awarded to Pascale Trencia and Guillermo Parra for their work on Folichonneries, as decided by Jara Segura, Rocío Rincón, and Yolanda Antón.

Audience Awards

• Best Fiction Feature: Rebuilding by Max Walker-Silverman.
• Best Non-Fiction Feature: Predators by David Osit.
• Best Short Film: Sweet Talkin’ Guy by Miss Dylan and Spencer Wardwell.

Funnily enough, despite spending five days completely immersed in the festival, out of this entire list of winners we only managed to watch David Osit’s Predators. Since it took home the Audience Award for best non-fiction film, we can safely say we had a perfect eye for picking the best documentary.

Final Thoughts

Attending the Americana Film Fest this year was an incredible experience for our newly established peanutbutterjelly.studio. From the historical significance of watching a documentary about video stores at an actual video store to catching the high-level production of Late Fame, we left every screening with plenty of visual and narrative fuel to bring back to our creative work. The festival does a great job of making North American indie cinema feel accessible and relevant in Barcelona, and we are already looking forward to next year.

If you enjoyed this article, keep an eye on our peanutbutterjelly blog. In just about two weeks, we will publish another review on the 2026 D’A Film Festival, which is about to kick off this week.