• The country will have a stand to showcase the best of its talent and will participate in the commercial space of the Marché du Film, with 10 production companies seeking to captivate international clients, supported by Proimágenes and through the agreement signed between the Colombian Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications and ProColombia.
  
• In addition, two Colombian first feature films, beneficiaries of the Film Development Fund, will participate in the festival. 
• It is worth noting that Colombia's audiovisual production exports closed in 2021 with US$184 million, three times more than what was sold abroad during 2020. 

The 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, one of the most important film festivals in the world, will take place from May 17 to 28, where Colombia is present annually with a stand representing the country and a delegation from Proimágenes Colombia, ProColombia and the Colombian Ministry of Information Technology and Communications.

In addition, and thanks to the support of the previously mentioned agreement, 10 Colombian production companies: Dynamo, Jaguar Bite, Candelaria Cine, Hecho en Lienzo, Ferviente Films, Arje Film, Rhayuela, Perrenque Media Lab, UMYK VR and Producción Valiente, will participate and offer their production services at the Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival, a commercial space where nearly 12.500 film industry professionals present and discover nearly 4,000 films and projects in development at 33 screening venues.

"The Cannes Film Festival is a vital showcase for the positioning of Colombian audiovisual production companies, a key sector in exports of knowledge-based services and one that had a great 2021 in international sales. We are demonstrating, with the Ministries of Commerce, ICT and Proimágenes, that we can contribute to the good image of the Colombian audiovisual industry abroad, highlighting its talent, creative potential, technical capacity of developments and high quality," said Flavia Santoro, president of ProColombia.

Exports of audiovisual production, reported by entrepreneurs to ProColombia, closed in 2021 with US$184 million, more than triple compared to 2020 when they totaled US$43 million. In 2021, the countries that bought these services the most were the United States, Chile, Spain, Israel, Canada and Mexico, among others. Between January and the beginning of May 2022, international sales figures are positive, reaching US$103 million, 20% more than in the same period of 2021.

On the other hand, the country stand serves as a meeting point between agents of the national industry and international distributors and production companies that may be interested in learning about Colombia and the advantages offered by law in terms of incentives, as well as the advantages of choosing the country as a filming destination for their productions.

This effort is managed by the Colombian Film Commission of Proimágenes, with the support of the National Government, whose purpose is to promote Colombia as a destination for the production of audiovisual projects such as films, series, video games, advertising and video clips. This is done through incentives to national and international projects with cash refunds (FFC) and tax certificates (CINA) for foreign audiovisual production.

Since the introduction of the CINA incentive in the second half of 2020 and until today, 49 projects are in execution with a projected investment in the country of more than two hundred ninety million USD ($290.000.000). For these projects, CINAs have been approved for up to more than eighty-seven million USD ($87.000.000).

Also, since the implementation of the FFC in 2012, 43 projects have been approved, of which 6 are in execution. The 37 completed projects received reimbursements for more than fifteen million USD ($15.000.000) and made a total investment in Colombia of more than fifty-one million USD ($51.000.000). 

As for the 6 projects under execution, they received reimbursements up to three million six hundred thousand USD ($3.600.000) and have a total projected investment in Colombia of more than sixteen million eight hundred thousand USD ($16.800.000). Memoria, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and starring Tilda Swinton, received this benefit.

"Colombia continues to position itself as an audiovisual powerhouse in Latin America, thanks to the economic incentives that allow us to generate sales of services, create direct and indirect jobs and tell stories made in Colombia. To date, we have approved 92 productions, including both incentives, with series being the format most in demand. Several of these titles have been at the top spots of streaming platforms, highlighting the originality of our stories, the talent of our technical and artistic teams, the beauty and diversity of our locations and the effectiveness of the incentives offered by the country," said Silvia Echeverri, director of the Colombian Film Commission.

Two first feature films, beneficiaries of the Film Development Fund - FDC - participate in Cannes 2022

This year, Colombia will be present at Cannes with two films that have benefited from the Film Development Fund. These are two first feature films that have been successful in their different stages of production: La Jauría, by Andrés Ramírez Pulido participated in laboratories such as the Cine Qua Non Lab Residency (Mexico), the Résidence de développement de projets artistiques LIZIERS (France), La Fabrique cinéma de l'Institute Français - Les cinémas du monde, Nuevas Miradas EICTV (Cuba), Sanfic Lab (Chile), and Cine en Desarrollo del Festival de Cine Latino de Toulouse (France), and was selected to participate in the Projects category of the Bogotá Audiovisual Market, among others.

Meanwhile, Un varón, by Fabián Hernández, participated in Atelier at the Cannes International Film Festival 2020, in the WIP at the San Sebastian Film Festival, received the co-production award at the Torino Film Lab in Italy, 2019, was part of the Producers Salon, at the Cali International Film Festival, Colombia, won the Région Nouvelle Aquitaine 2020 award, and the World Cinema Fund Berlinale 2020 Award.

Colombia's historic participation in the event has been characterized by a film selection that has been relevant for national cinematography. In 2021, Colombia's co-production with Thailand, Memoria, stood out by receiving the Jury Prize; for its part with Simon Mesa's Amparo, Sandra Melissa Torres, received the award for best actress in the Critics' Week. 

In 2019, Litigante by Franco Lolli, had its world premiere at the festival. In 2015, director César Acevedo received the Society of Authors and Composers Award, the France 4 Visionary Award (Revelation Director Award) and Le Grand Rail D'Or (Audience Award); that same year Alias María by José Luis Rugeles was present at Cannes in Un Certain Regard; and in La Quincena de Realizadores, El abrazo de la serpiente by Ciro Guerra, who was later juror in 2019; as well as El concursante by Carlos Osuna in L'Atelier de la Cinefondation.