The program coordinated by IDARTES (Audiovisual Arts Department of the District Institute of the Arts) has fostered the consolidation of the city as one of the epicenters for audiovisual production in the region.
August 12 marked the seventh anniversary of the Bogotá Film Commission, one of the Mayor’s Office’s programs coordinated by the Audiovisual Arts Department of the District Institute of the Arts (IDARTES), which aims to strengthen Bogotá’s industries, position the city as a filming destination, and guide and facilitate filming in the area.
“For the Bogotá Film Commission, it is important to continue building up the relationship with national and international organizations and agents in order to develop joint and cooperative projects and continuously position the city internationally as a film destination that offers a variety of possibilities,” stated Ricardo Canto Bossa, Audiovisual Arts Manager at IDARTES.
The Colombian audiovisual industry has become stronger over the last decade as a result of a system of incentives and institutional support that has helped develop quality national productions while putting Colombia on the map, turning the country into a destination for international productions for Netflix, HBO, Amazon and others. This growing audiovisual production has led to the professionalization and specialization of those working in the different fields of this sector.
Within this scenario, the country’s capital has become one of the most important audiovisual ecosystems in Latin America during the last decade. Bogotá is prepared and adapted to handle multiple film shootings, large foreign productions, series, music videos, animation, video games and advertising, with ideal infrastructure, qualified artistic and technical teams, a wide range of services, and competitive costs. All of this is a result of the Commission’s work, which has a directory of locations that provides images, location and contact information, settings and urban and rural landscapes that promote Bogotá as a diverse, modern, and historic city in each of the 20 districts and surrounding municipalities.
Likewise, the Commission operates as a manager and facilitator of the Unified Permit (PFUFA), which allows filming in public spaces in Bogotá, with which many international productions have been made, such as the series Distrito Salvaje (2018), and movies Mille 22 (2018) directed by Peter Berg starring Mark Wahlberg, or Memoria (2020) directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul starring Tilda Swinton; or national productions such as Francisco el matemático (2017), El General Naranjo (2019), Topos (2019), La Gloria de Lucho (2019), Los del barrio (2017), Polvo carnavalero (2017), Golondrinas (2015), El Comandante (2017), Millenials (2018), Danza Colombia, trayecto urbano (2019), Pepe Cáceres (2016), Mamá al volante (2019), Bandido honrado (2019), El man es Germán (2019), La mamá del 10 (2018), La niña (2016), and La esquina (2018), to mention a few.
Over the last 7 years, the Bogotá Film Commission has administered around 9,000 permits, averaging 1,970 per year and 170 per month. In addition, more than $7.992 billion have been collected in the use of public space for filming activities in the city, and nearly 22 training workshops have been held, training more than 2,500 professionals in the audiovisual sector. Since 2020, gender awareness workshops have been held to promote the construction of violence-free work environments.
