Colombian Directing Talent Surges, 10 to Watch

Narrowing Variety’s choice down to 10 was no small feat, given the surge of talent emerging from Colombia. Each year, more of its filmmakers win recognition at top-tier festivals, most recently Simon Mesa Soto’s dramedy “A Poet” which took home a Jury Prize at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard last May. Prior to that, his short “Leidi” won the Short Film Palme d’Or in 2014.

Young new animation filmmakers are also leading the charge, with María Cristina Pérez developing her debut animated feature with the support of the Hubert Bals Fund, Colombian funding and co-producers from France and Spain. Actor-writer-director Estefania Piñeres’ “Mu-ki-ra” was selected for Annecy‘s MIFA, Ventana Sur and Cannes’ heavily curated Animation Day.

Spurred by Colombia’s generous incentives, local production has flourished, with close to 80 films released last year. With the rise in volume, comes the surge in new, interesting voices.  

Here are 10 of them, in alphabetical order:

Catalina Arroyave

A screenwriter, director and acting coach, Arroyave co-founded Rara Colectivo Audiovisual in Medellín, where she produced her debut feature “The Days of the Whale” (2019), which premiered at SXSW and earned an honorable mention for best first feature by a woman. The film screened at over 30 international festivals, snagging several awards for its script and direction. Acquired by HBO in 2021, it tells the story of two young graffiti artists who defy a criminal gang by painting a mural of a whale over a threatening message. “I was motivated by nostalgia for a time when I felt the youthful courage to change the world and by the discomfort caused by the violence in Medellín—the city where I was born and raised,” she says. Catalina has also worked as casting director and acting coach on acclaimed films such as “Libertad,” “A Poet” and “Mi Bestia.” She is developing her second feature, “Arde un reino,” about a Catholic teen navigating sexual awakening in a conservative girls’ school in early 2000s Medellín.

Fabián Hernández

Hernández’s debut feature, queer coming of age drama “Un varón,” premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2022 and competed at San Sebastián. It was Colombia’s 2024 Oscar submission. Set in Bogotá, the film explores masculinity through the story of Carlos, a sensitive teen confronting toxic gender norms in a macho environment. Inspired by Hernández’s own adolescence, it reflects on how hegemonic masculinity shapes boys’ identities. He also created the public TV series “Las Guerreras.” Fabián is now developing his second feature, “Los pájaros,” with funding from Colombia’s FDC and France’s CNC. Set within a military institution, the film continues his exploration of gender and power, aiming to expose and humanize rigid, oppressive systems through personal and emotional storytelling. “It is going to be another exercise in undermining the institutions and finding sensitivities within contexts that are always stereotyped by rigidity and verticality,” he says.

Juan Sebastián Mesa

Extensively trained in screenwriting and contemporary narrative, he has taught and mentored at various universities. His lauded debut feature, “The Nobodies” (“Los Nadie”) (2016), won best feature at Venice Critics’ Week. His short film “Tierra Mojada” (2017) screened at Venice, Sundance and Clermont-Ferrand while his childhood-inspired second feature, “La Roya” (“The Rust”), was developed at the Cannes Cinéfondation Residence and premiered at the 2021 San Sebastián Festival. He is currently developing his third feature, “Lovers Go Home!,” a co-production between Colombia, France, Spain and Canada about a single mother and a war veteran’s online romance that takes a turn when he visits her. “With this project, I’m interested in exploring the geopolitics of the body as an emotional score – one that tells us about the characters’ pasts and the places they come from through their scars and physical traces. The landscapes they inhabit are inevitably inscribed in their bodies: war and trauma in [the soldier] Andrew’s and motherhood and grief in [single mother] Alejandra’s,” he explains.

Simón Mesa Soto

A director, screenwriter and producer, he studied Audiovisual Communication at the University of Antioquia and earned a Master’s degree from the London Film School. His thesis film “Leidi” won the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at Cannes 2014, and his follow-up, “Mother,” was also selected for Cannes in 2016. His debut feature, “Amparo,” premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week 2021, winning the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award. It went on to screen at over 50 festivals, winning awards in Havana, Chicago, Lima, and more, and took home seven Macondo Awards, including Best Director and Best Film. His second feature, “A Poet,” which scooped the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes 2025, turns on a has-been poet who finds new purpose in helping a budding teen poet find her voice. “Those films about writers or poets often seem made for the First World – I wanted to create a version of that from the perspective of Colombia, from this tropical, complex and unique place,” he says.

María Cristina Pérez

An animation filmmaker whose work explores traditional techniques and personal storytelling. Her short films have screened at major festivals including Locarno, Annecy, Clermont-Ferrand and DOK Leipzig. Her latest short, “Una vez en un cuerpo,” follows a woman confronting a strange presence inside her while reconciling with her sister over a childhood incident – an intimate reflection on the body as both witness and vessel for memory, loss, and transformation. She is now developing her first animated feature, “Mi papá el camión,” supported by the Hubert Bals Fund and Colombia’s FDC. A co-production between Colombia, France, and Spain, it follows Hilda and her father as they navigate loss and hope after a natural disaster. “The film takes us on an emotional journey through the city, following Hilda and Bonifacio, left to their own fate. Each one faces the pain of their loss, searching for a place in the world, only to discover, in the end, that what they were looking for was right beside them all along: so close, yet invisible,” she says.

Estefania Piñeres

An actress, director and screenwriter from the Caribbean coastal town of Cartagena, she is known for her roles in “Distrito Salvaje” (2019), “Delirio” (2025), and films like “Malta” (2023) and “The Empty Classroom” (2015). She received Colombia’s FDC grants for animation (“Color-ido,” “Mu-ki-ra”) and screenwriting (“Los malditos”) with “Mu-ki-ra” selected for Annecy’s MIFA, Ventana Sur and Cannes’ Animation Day 2024. Her debut feature “Los malditos” was part of Torino FilmLab 2023 and will shoot in 2026. “Mu-ki-ra” follows Cleo, a girl on a jungle quest to rescue her brother from a plant monster. “’Mu-ki-ra’ explores how we relate to those we see as ‘the other.’ In a world driven by binary thinking and disconnection from nature, the film invites us to question perceived divisions. It also stems from a desire to tell a story that resonates with the children around me,” she notes. “Los malditos,” set during Colombia’s 1948 Civil War, mixes horror and history, as two sisters face the terrors of both imagination and reality during Colombia’s internecine conflict, dubbed “La Violencia.”

Andrés Ramírez Pulido

Born in Bogotá in 1989, his short films “El Edén”, “Damiana,”and “1 Hijo & 1 Padre” premiered at Berlin, Cannes, and Locarno. His debut feature “The Pack” (“La Jauría,” 2022) won the Grand Prize at Cannes Critics’ Week and the SACD Award. It was also nominated for Best Ibero-American Film at the Goya Awards and earned him a Best Director nomination at the Rolling Stone Awards. He co-founded the production company Valiente Gracia. “The Pack” explores rural youth and inherited cycles of violence in Colombia. He’s currently developing two fiction features: one about a crime-free Andean town and another inspired by his family’s story during Colombia’s turbulent 1990s, selected for the Rueda Residency in Spain. “’The Pack’ was the culmination of a personal concern I began exploring in my earlier short films – rural adolescence in Colombia, shaped by the violence of parents and the society they belong to, echoing cycles of violence rooted in human nature,” he says.

Juan Sebastián Quebrada

A graduate of the Buenos Aires Film School and ESCAC in Barcelona, his graduate film “Días Extraños” premiered at Bafici 2015 and won awards at the Munich, Toulouse, and Cartagena festivals. His first professional short, “La Casa del Árbol,” debuted at Toronto 2017 and screened at over 30 festivals worldwide, earning multiple prizes. Quebrada’s debut feature, “El Otro Hijo,” premiered in San Sebastián’s New Directors section in 2023. “El Otro Hijo” follows Federico whose brother Simón dies at a party. As his family collapses, Federico struggles to grieve and forms a bond with Simón’s girlfriend Laura while trying to finish school. “’El Otro Hijo’ is inspired by a personal family story – the loss of one of my younger brothers. That profound grief became the foundation for this film, which evolved into an intimate and heartfelt story about adolescence,” he says. Quebrada’s upcoming film tells the story of a married woman, Cecilia, who faces silent grief after her lover’s sudden death, mourning in secret amid normal life.

Mariana Saffon

Saffon’s short film “Entre tú y Milagros” won the Horizons Award for best short film at the 2020 Venice Film Festival. The film screened at over 90 festivals, received 17 awards, and is currently featured on The New Yorker Screening Room and the Criterion Channel. A Columbia University MFA graduate and Milos Forman Directing Fellow, she is developing her debut feature, “Mar de Leva,” produced by Capuciné Mahé at Evidencia Films. The project was selected for the Torino Script Lab, Berlinale Script Station and TFL Feature Lab. Saffon began writing “Entre tú y Milagros” after turning 30 – an age at which her mother was already divorced and raising a child. The realization that she had always viewed her mother as a role, not a person, became the foundation for the film’s emotional journey. “That was the key to conceive the film that was an exploration of mother-daughter relationships and the complexity in them, the expectations and the contradictory needs of each other, especially in adolescence.”

Gala del Sol

Described by Variety as a “fabulous off-kilter voice in contemporary cinema,” the Spanish-Colombian director, producer and screenwriter is known for blending fantastical realism with a punk edge and tropical flair. Born in 1996, she was a finalist at the Student Academy Awards with her Chapman University thesis film, “Transient Passengers.” Her debut feature, “Rains Over Babel” (2025), a steampunk fever dream set in a mythic version of Cali, Colombia, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. “At its core, ‘Rains Over Babel’ explores themes of identity, resilience, and love,” she explains.  A member of the Colombian Academy of Motion Pictures, she is represented by Los Angeles-based company stayM88. She is currently developing –  alongside her sister – an interconnected cinematic universe set in the City of Maya— “which will incorporate not only films, but also serialized projects, comic books and a clothing brand,” she says, adding: “Our next immediate project is a psychological thriller that follows two amnesiac lovers trapped in an underground sex motel, who must ascend floor by floor through their repressed memories — all while being pursued by a mysterious bellboy who never dies,” she says.