Festival Internacional de Cine de la Universidad Central (8)

Festival start: 27 October 2025      Festival end: 31 October 2025

The Central University International Film Festival (Bogotá, Colombia) will celebrate its eighth edition in 2025, and one of the fundamental pillars of this new stage is the opening towards alternative forms of film production, as well as the promotion of aesthetic experimentation. Under the motto "Finding a possible cinema", the festival proposes a innovative approach, opening spaces for projects that question established conventions and break with the traditional structures of the film industry. This edition moves away from the dynamics that limit creativity to high budgets or large-scale productions, and, instead, embraces creative freedom, understanding cinema as a tool available to everyone, regardless of available resources.

This approach seeks to break down the limitations of a cinema conventionally associated with the bourgeois, and encourage filmmakers to develop projects closer to their realities, which dialogue authentically with their social and cultural environment.

In this sense, the short films that enter the competition will be evaluated and valued mainly for their recursiveness in terms of production, the exploration of contexts closest to the author and the rupture of cinematographic language through the use of elements present in various everyday lives.

In each category, the prize will be awarded to the best work and if the jury considers it, a special mention will be awarded by the jury. Awards and recognitions will be announced at the festival's closing ceremony.

Days before the opening of the call, the prizes will be announced for whoever wins in each category. These prizes can range from a catalog of films selected by the festival curator, to free rental of audiovisual recording equipment and cash prizes.

We are looking for short films that have been made within the framework of an academic activity or exercise (classes, workshops, degree projects, etc.) that want to be part of our exhibition and competition spaces. We accept films completed from 2024 to 2025.

In this eighth edition we will have 3 competition sections:

• National Competition (Colombia): In the National Competition, the curatorial criteria are: Short films made by university students of Colombian nationality and completed in the last two years, which reflect the author's personal searches, encouraging the exploration of narratives close to their context and expanding experimentation and innovation to their production models. Exploration is not limited to one genre or format; Any type of short film, whether fiction, experimental, animation or documentary, will be accepted and evaluated as a cinematographic work.

Short films of any genre and format will be accepted, made by Colombian university students or by those who belong to a school, faculty or department of visual arts, cinema and/or communication in Colombia. The duration of the short films must be between 5 and 25 minutes, and the completion date must be between 2024 and 2025.

• National School Short Film Competition (Colombia): The selection criteria for the National School Short Film Competition are: Short films made by students from Colombian schools, completed in the last two years, that demonstrate an interest in audiovisual experimentation and the creation of films using homemade materials. The objective is to bring the public closer to the innovative proposals of new young filmmakers with basic training. Exploration is not limited to one genre or format; Any type of short film, whether fiction, experimental, animation or documentary, will be accepted and evaluated as a cinematographic work.

Short films of any genre and format will be accepted, made by students from Colombian schools, with a duration between 5 and 20 minutes. The completion date of the short films must be between 2024 and 2025.

• International Competition: In International Competition, the curatorial criteria are: short films made by students of foreign nationality (non-Colombian) and completed in the last two years, belonging to schools, university courses, postgraduate, technical, master's degrees, etc. The objective is to find international panoramas that recognize the searches and questions of contemporary independent cinema, where interest in production is explored through alternative forms to traditional ones. In addition, projects with both formal and aesthetic narrative concerns are sought, in which the films do not focus on a specific theme, but rather on impulses that come from cinematographic language. Exploration is not limited to one genre or format; Any type of short film, whether fiction, experimental, animation or documentary, will be accepted and evaluated as a cinematographic work.

Short films of any genre and format, made by university students of foreign nationality, will be accepted. The duration of the short films must be between 5 and 25 minutes, and their completion date must be between 2024 and 2025.


Note: The curatorial team may determine that a work be placed in a different category if it so considers.

Participant profile:

Participation will be open to university students and graduates of audiovisual programs, plastic arts, social communication and/or similar. All works that wish to participate, carried out within the framework of a university activity or exercise, may participate, provided that the author, director, producer and/or editor (which may be the same person) have been linked to a university institution at the time of creation and up to a maximum of two (2) years after graduation.

Participation requirements for all categories:

1. Theme: To increase the chances of being in this year's official selection, the works can refer (in one way or another) to this year's main theme “Finding a possible cinema” (Read the festival description).

2. Format: The works, if selected, must be delivered in the best possible quality (greater than 1080p up to a maximum of 4k) and on the dates that will be established for that.

3. Only completed works will be received from January 2024.

4. For the selected films, a letter from the university or institution will be requested that endorses the work, along with the screening copy of the film, the director's photographs, poster, graphic piece and/or still from the film and a signature of the authorization for the projection and dissemination of promotional pieces in the programming and promotion of the festival.

5. If the work is not spoken in Spanish, the filmmakers will have to send the short film with the proper subtitles in the Spanish language; if the subtitles are not sent, the short film will be disqualified.

6. The selected films will be requested to have subtitles in C.C (Closed Captions), since it is important that people with diverse abilities can enjoy the entire festival programming.