See Colombian Cinema: News | Proimágenes Colombia

VLAFF, held annually in Canada, promotes Latin American cinema in Vancouver as a way to foster dialogue between cultures. Alongside Latin American works, the festival also highlights contemporary Latin Canadian and Indigenous filmmaking.

This year, Colombia participated with the feature-length documentary Soñé su nombre (I Dreamed His Name) by Ángela Carabalí, in the New Directors section. After 30 years of avoiding her grief, Ángela confronts her past when her father appears in a dream asking her to find him. Together with her sister Juliana, she travels across Colombia to the Indigenous lands where their father, an Afro-descendant farmer, was forcibly disappeared. The journey from Medellín to Caloto, in the conflict-scarred department of Cauca, forces the sisters to confront the paradoxes of the land, the weight of family memories, and Indigenous spirituality, which offers Ángela an unexpected path back to her father. The documentary, previously part of the BAM Film Screenings section of the Bogotá Audiovisual Market – BAM (2024), had its world premiere in March at the 32nd edition of Hot Docs and went on to win Best Feature at the 29th Florianópolis International Film Festival Audiovisual Mercosur – FAM 2025.

Also in New Directors was Semillas (Seeds) by Eliana Niño, a fiction feature that had its world premiere this year at the Chicago Latino Film Festival. The story follows Shaira, a girl from Colombia's eastern plains who dreams of competing in a coleo festival. After a drought severely damages the family's crops, Shaira's grandfather secretly sells her horse. He tells her that the reason clouds sometimes take the shape of animals is because the sky traps them until the rain comes back. Shaira then sets out to find a special seed that will make the skies open again and bring her horse back.
The short film ¡Salsa!, directed by Antonina Kerguelén Román, screened in the Queer Pix: Features + Shorts section. Also in competition was A dónde van los pájaros cuando llueve (Where Do Birds Go When It Rains) by Juan Sebastián Sisa Archila, part of the Refresh vol. 6 catalog, in the Official Short Film Competition. Joining the same category was Under land by Sebastián Duque R.

In the Vanguardias section, Colombia was represented with Yo vi tres luces negras (I Saw Three Black Lights) by Santiago Lozano. The plot follows José de Los Santos, a 70-year-old man responsible for funeral rituals in his Pacific Coast community. One day, his son's spirit foretells his death and orders him to seek the origin. José embarks on a journey through the jungle where, in the midst of unending armed conflict, he must stay alive to reach his final resting place. The film was previously honored with the Corazonada Prize at the 36th Cinelatino Festival in Toulouse (France, 2024).

Finally, the Clasicos section showcased the restored version of Amor, mujeres y flores (Love, Women and Flowers) by Marta Rodríguez and Jorge Silva. Shot over five years, the documentary captures the testimonies of women working in Bogotá's flower industry. It exposes the multiple forms of violence they endure, the consequences of indiscriminate pesticide use, and the rise of a women's union fighting for emancipation and labor rights. Originally released in 1989, the restored film was also screened in Cannes Classics 2023, the section dedicated to tributes and restorations.