It is bittersweet to see something you love grow from afar. When I came to Canada almost a decade ago, it was nearly a miracle to see Colombian films in circulation in North American film festival circuits, and somehow it was even harder to see one of them making ripples in their national theatres. Yet, over the last ten years, Colombian national cinema has experienced a surge in both quantity and quality. Boosted by a collaborative environment that has seen a rise in coproduction and a new wave of self-assured filmmakers eager for new stories and artistic dialogues, Colombia has had one of its finest years in the global sphere. However, this nurturing artistic environment did not just start by divine provenance; it began in the courts and with the lawmakers, as Claudia Triana Soto recounts. The director of Proimágenes Colombia paid a visit to Toronto for TIFF 2025 for the festival’s industry conference: “PERSPECTIVES: Latin American Cinema in Challenging Times” and shared the internal machinations that have newly positioned Colombia as a fertile cinematic industry. Through a well established raport with the government, Proimágenes, led by Triana, helped create laws that not only incentivize national movie-making but that also protect the artists and technicians that coexist within the industry itself. In parallel, these laws installed funds and subsidies that have supported the development of over a hundred films in the last couple of years. Simultaneously, Proimágenes has launched a proactive deal with private theatres and cineplexes: a percentage of their yearly total earnings must be invested into local filmmaking initiatives.
Although this sounds like a logical resolution to maintain a healthy national cinema, it doesn’t seem to be the default choice in other countries in Latin America. Accompanying Triana were industry leaders Manuel García (Argentina) and Nicolás Celis (Mexico). Unfortunately, their particular cases are not too similar to the recent Colombian success. Argentina, once a film powerhouse, has seen its volume in national production reduced to zero due to the lack of support and an antagonistic stance on culture by their goverment. On the other hand, Mexico does have structures that finance the production of local films, but they do not have an entity that oversees a fair competition against the aggressive volume of films pouring down from its northern neighbours. The challenge for the film ecosystem in Latin America is a three-pronged condition: there is the financial (mostly state-regulated) aid to produce films, there is the competition against high-volume, highly-rated films from Hollywood, unregulatedly flooding local cinemas, and finally, the quality and diversity of movies that can truly captivate an audience who is predisposed to avoid national cinema.
This is where a platform like TIFF becomes so important. Speaking with Diana Cadavid, the international programmer for Ibero-America, the importance of bringing a wide variety of films from the Latin American region is one of the main initiatives for the festival. “Latin America is not monolithic,” the programmer stated as she explained that the diversity of stories, artists, and locales is at a historic high. Traditionally bundled up together, each Latin American country offers a richness in form, stories, and textures that goes unnoticed year after year in bigger markets in the global industry. Featuring films like Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent (Brazil), Diego Céspedes’ The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (Chile), or Marité Ugás & Mariana Rondón’s It Would be Night in Caracas (Venezuela) provided both a diversified experience for the audience in Toronto as well as a platform for the artists behind the cameras.
This is exemplified perfectly by Simón Mesa Soto’s A Poet (Colombia). Not only did the movie gather considerable audiences in Canada, but a week after its TIFF premiere, it became one of the highest-grossing local films in Colombia in 2025. Filling festival screenings overseas has always seemed easier for Colombian films in the past; yet, maybe for the first time, a festival favourite became a crowd pleaser in its local ecosystem. This is extremely revelatory. The film’s success seems to be a perfect storm: the result of a nurturing local environment, the conclusion of years of championing a renewed sense of belonging in the national film industry, and, more importantly, a spark in the regional theatres as audiences finally answered the call filmmakers have been trying to make for decades.
Perhaps Mesa Soto’s film is a one-off experience, a lucky strike in the annals of an unforgiving history. However, I like to believe it is more than that. Not only is A Poet a special film in itself, but it also seems that the national scene has had care and attention poured into it. Who knows what the future years will have in store for Colombian and Latin American cinema? The political uncertainties that loom over them and the hostile takeover by American streaming companies will always be factored into the equation, but at least, for a year, and in part thanks to TIFF, we were able to see a historic selection of films that will allow us to dream and aim higher.
Please check our capsule reviews for more in-depth texts about A Poet and The Secret Agent
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