Festival start: 05 December 2025
Festival end: 08 December 2025
The Santa Fe de Antioquia Film Festival Corporation decided, through the Festival, to turn the municipality of Santa Fe de Antioquia into a large movie theater and show open-air cinema, under the stars and framed in the colonial architecture of one of the Heritage towns of Colombia.
Over the years, the Santa Fe de Antioquia Film Festival has sought to bring cinema closer to the public through workshops, conferences, a central screening of films according to the theme, and training workshops. These activities are designed not only for the inhabitants of the municipality of Santa Fe de Antioquia, but also for inhabitants of Medellín and other inhabitants of western Antioquia and in general for university students, specialized journalists, filmmakers in training, film critics, producers, filmmakers and film lovers who for twenty-three years add up to an annual average of 15,000 festival attendees.
Óperas primas Competition.
Santa Fe de Antioquia Film Festival invites producers and filmmakers from around the world to submit their feature films to the First Films call for entries until june 13, 2025.
The First Films competition is the result of the exploration of feature films from all over the world with great aesthetic, technical, and narrative quality. We seek for each audiovisual image to have a critical, reflective, and innovative approach in terms of narrative, imagery, and discourse.
Once again, the Santa Fe de Antioquia Film Festival will be the platform where directors from around the world will showcase their debut feature films to an audience eager for new stories and diverse perspectives.
The selected productions will be screened during the 26th Santa Fe de Antioquia Film Festival, which will take place from December 5 to 8, 2025.
Submit your first film and get your work seen!
Categories:
Submit your feature films in one of the following categories:
Fiction
Documentary
Animation
Participation conditions:
Each filmmaker or producer may submit as many films as they see fit.
Each feature film submitted must be registered separately.
The deadline for registration is June 13, 2025, at 11:59 PM (UTC -05:00).
A first film is understood as the director’s debut work, with which they begin their filmography.
The feature film must have been produced after January 1, 2023.
The minimum duration of the feature film must be 45 minutes and a maximum of 130 minutes. Films that do not meet this duration will not be evaluated by the jury.
Feature films must be presented in their original language. If produced in a language other than Spanish, they must include Spanish subtitles for evaluation and screening; otherwise, they will not be evaluated by the jury.
The Festival reserves the right to use excerpts from the selected material for the promotion and advertising of the call for entries and the Festival.
The 2025 First Films showcase will consist of a selection of up to 5 feature films.
Feature films that are publicly available on the internet, including streaming platforms, will not be accepted.
Incomplete submissions, links that do not work, or missing documents will not be considered.
A signed exhibition rights release letter is required for registration.
Once registration is confirmed, the film may not be withdrawn.
The Santa Fe de Antioquia Film Festival organization reserves the right to invite films directly to the competition.
What we are looking for:
We are interested in originality, rigor, and risk in the use of audiovisual language and in the choice of treatment and theme.
We select documentary and narrative projects that experiment with audiovisual as an expressive and narrative medium.
We prefer feature films that avoid clichés and extend their expressive possibilities.
We encourage new explorations by filmmakers, whether in thematic, aesthetic, or technical terms, or where we see a true author trying to say something.
All themes are welcome.
New technologies have enabled the creation of innovative techniques for producing audiovisual material and alternative ways of distributing content. For this reason, we also accept feature films that explore the different alternatives offered by technology, as long as they fit within one of the three categories of this call.
awards for the selected:
The winning films will be part of the Official Selection of First Films 2025 and will be screened during the 26th Santa Fe de Antioquia Film Festival, to be held from December 5 to 8, 2025.
A financial prize of COP 4,000,000 (Four million Colombian pesos) will be awarded to the winner of the First Films competition.
The selected feature films, after being screened during the 26th Santa Fe de Antioquia Film Festival and with the producer's prior authorization, may be exhibited in special showcases and national and international festivals, as well as in cultural institutions according to the agreements established by the Santa Fe de Antioquia Film Festival Corporation.
Additionally, there will be a special mention for the Audience Award, chosen by public vote.
CALL STAGES
First stage: registration
From May 12 until June 30, 2025, you can register your feature film by completing the registration form (where, in addition to contact information and the feature film’s technical details, you must share a viewing link for your work). Additionally, the following documents must be attached:
Complete the online form available at the following link: https://forms.gle/5hiAFuUcUbJMaTXn7
Submit a private and password-protected viewing link in the registration form. Physical copies (DVD/Blu-ray) or links that only allow downloading but not viewing are not accepted.
All registered films agree to send, once selected, a download link for the film in .mov or .mp4 formats (other formats such as Blu-ray, .avi, etc., are not accepted)
within the dates established by this call.
A signed exhibition rights release letter, which will be effective if the feature film is selected.
Second stage: selected films
The selected films will be announced on September, 2025, on our official channels and social media. The selected feature films must send the following information by email:
A minimum of 3 stills or frames from the feature film (with a minimum resolution of 1500 pixels wide, 16:9 aspect ratio, and in high-quality JPG or TIFF format).
A minimum of one photograph of the film's director (with a minimum resolution of 1500 pixels wide, 3:4 aspect ratio, and in high-quality JPG or TIFF format).
The feature film poster (with a minimum resolution of 1500 pixels wide and in high-quality JPG or TIFF format).
A copy of the director’s ID.
The feature film trailer (in the best available quality).
A text document (.txt, .rtf, .doc) NOT PDF containing:
Original title.
Synopsis.
Technical details of the film.
A brief profile of the film’s director (maximum 50 words).
Third stage: reception of materials
The original files of the selected films must be submitted digitally by October 4, 2025, to the following email address: organizacion@festicineantioquia.com
The selected feature films must be sent in .mov or .mp4 format (other formats, either digital or physical, such as Blu-ray, .avi, etc., are not accepted).
Failure to submit the complete material mentioned above by the established dates will prevent the feature film from participating in the official selection of First Films and will be replaced by the next film on the eligible list.
Acceptance of terms and conditions
The film’s production team certifies that they have all the necessary image rights permissions for the feature film submitted and that they comply with current copyright laws.
The financial awards are subject to all legal withholdings, tax regulations, and current legislation in Colombia.
Failure to comply with the call schedule by the production team will result in the film being excluded from the competition.
Participants declare under oath that they have authorization for the use and dissemination of the works and/or excerpts appearing in the feature films submitted to the call, and by the time of registration, they release the Santa Fe de Antioquia Film Festival Corporation from any liability for any situation that may arise concerning this topic during the call, exhibition, and film festival.
The directors, producers, and/or distributors of the selected feature films accept the exhibition of their works during the festival, without incurring a fee for exhibition rights from the Festival.
The Santa Fe de Antioquia Film Festival organization does not cover travel expenses for the film’s representatives; if they attend the event, they must bear all costs related to their trip, such as transportation, meals, lodging, and any other expenses incurred.
Participation in the call and registration expressly implies the reading, understanding, and acceptance of the above conditions.
