Ver Cine Colombiano: Noticias | Proimágenes Colombia

At the 80th edition of the Venice International Film Festival, Margarita Rosa de Francisco stood out by winning the Best Actress award in the Orizzonti (Horizons) section, which focuses on showcasing innovative and avant-garde trends by diverse creators. This year's judging panel was led by Jonas Carpignano and featured Kaouther Ben Hania, Kahlil Joseph, Jean-Paul Salomé, and Tricia Truttle.
 
The Colombian actress received this award for her role in "El Paraíso," an Italian film penned and directed by Enrico Maria Artale. In the film, Julio César, nearly forty years old, shares a life with his mother, played by Margarita Rosa de Francisco, a strong-willed Colombian woman. They share everything – a riverside house filled with memories, meager earnings from working for a local drug dealer, a common passion for salsa and merengue nights, and a life of marginalization marked by both love and oppression. This delicate balance is disrupted when Ines, a young Colombian woman, arrives after her first trip as a cocaine "mule." With desires and jealousy running high, the situation spirals out of control, sending Julio on a painful journey back to his roots for the first time.
 
Margarita Rosa de Francisco is an actress, singer, writer, composer, and presenter, known for her leading roles in the telenovelas Café, con aroma de mujer (Coffee, with the Scent of a Woman), Gallito Ramírez, La madre (The Mother), and Los pecados de Inés de Hinojosa (The Sins of Inés de Hinojosa). In films, she has starred in Ilona llega con la lluvia (Ilona Arrives with the Rain) (1996) as Ilona Grabowska, which earned her the Best Actress award at the Biarritz Film Festival. Her film credits also include ¡Fidel! (2002) as Naty Revuelta, Adiós (Bye - 2006) as Ana Elisa, Paraíso Travel (2008) as Raquel, Del amor y otros demonios (Of Love and Other Demons- 2009) as Bernarda Cabrera (winner of the Macondo Award for Best Supporting Role Actress), Cartagena as Lucía (2009), García as Amalia (Best Actress Award at the Macondo Awards and the Gramado Festival), and Vive por mí (Live for me) as Mariluz, among others.
 
Colombian participation in the Venice Film Festival is becoming more and more frequent. Also present at the 2023 edition were the productions Bogotá Story by Esteban Pedraza, as part of Orizzonti, and the virtual reality project Floating With Spirits by Juanita Onzaga, as part of the Immersive Competition.
 
In 2020, Entre tú y milagros (Between You and Milagros), directed by Mariana Saffon and produced by Diana Patiño, won the Horizontes Award for Best Short Film. Selva trágica (Tragic Jungle), the fifth feature film by Mexican director Yulene Olaizola, co-produced by the Colombian company Contravía Films, also competed in this category the same year. The short film Tierra mojada (Wet Land) by Juan Sebastián Mesawas also in the Official Selection of the 74th edition in 2017.
 
Furthermore, the International Critics' Week, an independent section parallel to the Venice Film Festival and organized by the Italian Film Critics Association (SNCCI), has also featured Colombian participation. In 2022, the 37th edition saw the world premiere of Anhell69, a production written and directed by Theo Montoya, which went on to win the Mario Serandrei - Hotel Saturnia Award and the Verona Film Club's Most Innovative Film Award. The Spanish-Colombian co-production Eles transportan a morte (They Transport the Dead) by Helena Girón and Samuel M. Delgado, with the Colombian company Blond Indian Films (Birds of Passage, Embrace of the Serpent) in the mix, competed in the 36th edition of the event a year earlier. Los nadie(Nobodies) by Juan Sebastián Mesa had its world premiere in 2016 in this section.

Colombian presence at the festival has also been significant in the Giornate degli Autori, also known as Venice Days. This section is organized by the Italian Filmmakers Association (ANAC) and 100 Autori - Cinetelevisiva Authority Association, functioning as an independent festival segment. It is inspired by the famous Directors' Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival and emphasizes high-quality cinema, innovation, research, and production independence in production. Several Colombian films have been showcased in this section. Candelaria, Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza's third feature film, was featured in 2017 and won the GdA Director's Prize during its 14th edition. Pariente (Relative) by Iván D. Gaona had its world premiere in 2016, and La sangre y la lluvia (Blood and Rain) by Jorge Navas did the same in its sixth edition in 2009.