Profiles: Rubén Mendoza | Proimágenes Colombia

Born in 1980, Rubén Mendoza has written and directed 8 short films and edited the most recent films of the renowned filmmaker Luis Ospina. His debut feature, La sociedad del semáforo, won more than 15 international awards which include, in the film’s development phase, the Fundación Carolina Scriptwriting Scholarship; the Scriptwriting Incentive from Colombia’s Film Development Fund; a scholarship to attend the TYPA Foundation’s script laboratory in Colón, Argentina; the Amiens Festival Prize for Project Development, and the Ibermedia Program’s Incentive for Project Development.   
 
Mendoza graduated with a first-class degree and thesis with honors in Film and Television Production at Colombia’s National University, while also serving as the director of the National University’s video library and teaching assistant in Film History. He also won the university’s internal script contest with Antes de cabalgar. A workshop on photography in audiovisual script with Jaques Rubeirollis of the French Embassy and the workshop held by the Varan School (France) for Colombian filmmakers stand out among his additional studies. In 2001, with a scholarship from the National University, he travelled to Montreal, Canada, to finish his study program at Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. Mendoza took the 2002 workshop “Music for Film”, delivered by Oswaldo Montes, and participated in the Film Script Workshop taught by Eliseo Altunaga at the International School of Film and TV in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba in July 2003. In 2010, he was chosen to participate in the Residence at the Cannes Film Festival together with Oscar Ruiz Navia.
 
He has worked with Rhayuela Films as a director for adverts for brands such as Comcel, Americana Extrema, Chevrolet Optra, and the Ministries of the Environment and of Social Protection, among other clients. He has also directed numerous music videos for groups including Dr. Krápula, Velandia y la Tigra, Sin Sentido, Ciegossordomudos and Las Áñez. Highlights of his work as an editor include the feature-length documentaries De(s)amparo by Gustavo Fernández V. (of which he was also co-scriptwriter and co-producer), La desazón suprema, retrato incesante de Fernando Vallejo (2003) by Luis Ospina (of which he was also an associate producer) and Un tigre de papel, also by Luis Ospina.
 
Mendoza was the scriptwriter, director and co-producer of the short fiction film ¡Estatuas! (2003), his degree thesis which was awarded thesis with honors by Colombia’s National University. In 2003, he won first prize in the District Cinemateca’s contest (the country’s most important prize in terms of prize money and tradition) with his script for the short film La Cerca, on which he also worked as co-producer. Mendoza also won the Colombia-Argentina Internships call (granted by the Ministries of Culture of both countries) with the film. This led him to travel to Argentina in 2004 to present new projects to Argentinian producers and carry out the short film El reino animal. La Cerca was chosen to participate in the official selections of over 23 festivals, including Cannes (Cinéfondation), Huesca, Toulouse, Beijing, Huelva and the Rio de Janeiro Short Film Festival, among others, and the same project has earned Mendoza over 5 awards. He is also the director and scriptwriter of the short films Grandma´s Eyes, La casa por la ventana (2010), El corazón de la mancha (2010) and Montañita (2014). In 2014, he premiered the fiction feature films Tierra en la lengua (for which he received the awards for Best Film in the Fiction category and Best Director in the Colombian Film category at the 54th edition of the Cartagena Film Festival) and Memorias del calavero, which also featured at the same festival that year.

In 2015 he released the documentary El valle sin sombras. This was followed by another documentary in 2017, Señorita María, la falda de la montaña, which made its global premiere as part of the Official Colombian Film Selection and the Official Documentary Selection at the 57th edition of FICCI, where he was recognized as Best Director in the Colombian Film category.
 
Mendoza’s sixth feature film (and his fourth in the fiction genre), Niña errante (Wandering Girl) won the Film Development Fund’s Comprehensive Incentive in 2015, in addition to being the first Latin American film to win the Golden Wolf award for Best Film and the award for Best Soundtrack during its global premiere at the Black Nights International Film Festival in Tallinn, Estonia. The film also won one of the collateral prizes at the 40th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, Cuba, the Biznaga de Plata award for Best Supporting Actress at the Malaga Spanish Film Festival and Best Fiction Film at the 7th Colombian Film Festival NY. The film also opened the 59th edition of the Cartagena Film Festival (FICCI).    

Last updated: April 2019.