Chile showcases broad slate of films, talent, and projects at IDFA
Thanks The 2025 IDFA starts today
Headlining the delegation is Blue Silence (Silencio Azul) by Matías Rojas Ruz, world-premiering in the International Short Film Competition. Set on the coast near Manquemapu, the short revisits the 1965 Janequeo sinking through textured analogue imagery and fragmented memory.
Two Chilean features appear in Signed, IDFA’s showcase for distinctive authorial voices: Ignacio Agüero’s Letters to My Dead Parents (Cartas a mis padres muertos) and Bettina Perut & Iván Osnovikoff’s Invisible Life (Vida Invisible). Agüero’s film threads five decades of family and national history, beginning with his father’s death days after Allende’s election, through archival and new footage in what he calls a «wandering cinema.» Perut and Osnovikoff follow microbiologist-parliamentarian Cristina Dorador into the Atacama, tracing research on drug-resistant «superbugs.»
In Best of Fests, José Jiménez’s Dead Tongue (Lengua Muerta)—co-produced with Sebastián Sánchez—portrays a solitary man on a southern beach, his halting speech circling an unspoken secret tied to the Pinochet era.
Letters to My Dead Parents, a film by Ignacio Agüero
Chilean participation extends to IDFA’s professional platforms. Two filmmakers—Sidka Saavedra Vera and José Jiménez—join IDFAcademy (13–16 November). Saavedra brings the post-production project The Boy Girl and the Gothic Orca (El niño niña y la orka gótika), weaving Buenos Aires’ underground gothic drag scene with a first-person transition narrative. Jiménez attends with EXTERRA (co-directed with Celeste Rojas Mugica), exploring sites and documents linked to Ingrid Olderock, a notorious DINA agent. Ignacio Agüero will also serve on the Envision Competition jury.
Around a dozen Chilean projects at various stages will circulate in IDFA’s market, including:
Ballover Films: Children: The Memory That Remains (Hijos: la memoria que queda) (Dir. Francisco López Balló; Prod. Francisco López, Lize Bouzidi, Jean Elios) and Territories (Territorios) (Dir. López Balló; Prod. Francia Aranda).
La Ventana Cine: The Capture (of Paul Schaefer) (La Captura) (Dir. Rafa Valdeavellano; Prod. Carola Fuentes) and I Don’t Want to Say Goodbye (No quiero decir adiós) (Dir. Carola Fuentes; Prod. Rafa Valdeavellano).
Galgo Storytelling: VR work Knowing Your Nature (Dir. Francisca Silva; Prod. María José Díaz) and feature Chuchu (Dir./Prod. María José Díaz).
Mimbre Films: No Money No Honey (Dir. Nicole Costa; Prod. Daniela Camino) and Of Water and Death (De agua y muerte) (Dir. Vicente Barros; Prod. Rocío Romero).
Cangrejo Films: Artifacts of War (Artefactos de Guerra) (Dir. Jorge Caballero; Prod. Ana Giralt, Diego Pino) and Object (Objeto) (Dir. Loreto Quijada; Prod. Fernando Bascuñan, Sebastián Züger, Loreto Quijada), a Chile–Germany co-production.
Chiledoc is a public–private initiative supported by ProChile (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and the Chilean Documentary Corporation (CCDoc), promoting Chilean documentary worldwide through strategic promotion, network-building and sector development