Director of Audiovisuals, Film and Interactive Media of the Ministry of Cultures (CNACC)
Adelfa Martínez
Since 2010, Adelfa Martínez Bonilla has been Director of the Film Department of the Ministry of Culture of Colombia. The Department’s mission is to work towards a country with its own, stable film culture; to support initiatives improving the quality of moving images produced in Colombia; and to foster a viable industry that can continue to prosper.
At the 31st meeting of the Conference of Ibero-American Film Boards (CACI), held in Lisbon, Portugal, Colombia was elected as CACI’s Executive Secretary for the period 2017-2019, a position that will be performed by Martínez as director of the Colombian Film Department.
Adelfa Martínez first joined the Film Department of the Ministry of Culture in 1999, when she served as coordinator of the Management Group and advised the Film Department in designing policies for co-productions.
Under Martínez’s watch as director, the Film Department has had a series of landmark achievements. In July 2012, the Colombian congress passed Law 1556, which seeks to promote Colombia as a location for filming international productions. In addition, during her period of leadership, the Department designed Retina Latina, a distribution platform for Latin American film, which was awarded financing from the Inter-American Development Bank in its regional public goods initiative. Martínez also oversaw the implementation of the program “Cinematic Colombia: Our Film for Everyone,” which brought Colombian film to places in the country where there are no commercial theaters. And she worked from the very beginning to implement Film Law 814 and its tools to support production and promote Colombian film.
Her many activities as director of the Department include: supporting the initiatives of the National Council of Arts and Culture in Film (CNACC); designing and coordinating incentive awards for the creation, production, and distribution of Colombian productions and co-productions, as part of the funding programs of the Film Development Fund and the Ibermedia Program; creating the Encuentros Cartagena event and serving as its director for its first few editions; and coordinating the Ministry of Culture’s role in the implementation of the Colombian Film Commission, led by the Ministry of Culture and Proimáges Colombia.
Martínez has a degree in journalism from the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia. From 1995 to 1997, she was a documentary producer with the Espacio Imaginario program at the Television Department of the Colombian Institute of Culture (Colcultura). She participated in the management and production of the International Documentary Screening since it was first founded.
Last updated: April 2017.