Under the concept of Converging Boundaries, CINETORO 2026 proposes a curatorial framework inspired by the force of tectonic collision. Just as, in geology, a convergent boundary is the space where two plates collide to destroy the old and raise new mountain ranges and volcanoes, this edition seeks films in which the impact between languages generates new ways of seeing and hearing. We move away from the static reading of maps — those arbitrary divisions of dots and lines — to focus instead on the energy that emerges within the zone of contact, where the friction between the human and the non-human, or between the here and the elsewhere, constructs new narrative geographies.
CINETORO 2026 calls for works that explore processes of collision and emergence. We seek films that use experimentation as a tool to blur political and social boundaries, proposing perspectives that recognize the continuity of the jungle or the vastness of the desert beyond geographical limits. How does perception transform when cinematic form itself becomes the result of a clash of forces?
In this edition, the border is not an impenetrable wall, but a living zone of creation; a space of formal risk that challenges pre-established categories and allows us to understand, through cinema at the margins, what new unions emerge when we dare to inhabit the liminal state. We seek films that inhabit the interstice: the space that exists precisely in the middle of the line, inviting audiences into a cinematic experience where genres do not simply intersect, but transform one another. We are interested in a cinema of hybridization where documentary, animation, and fiction function like tectonic plates in constant motion.
This is an invitation to a fearless cinema, crossing and dissolving boundaries; a cinema that inhabits the periphery and the frontier in order to raise from the margins, new and necessary mountains of imagination.
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SECTIONS
Imagined Vector / National Official Competition
Works completed between 2024 and 2026, created by Colombian filmmakers and/or collectives with an established trajectory whose members were born in Colombia. Films must not exceed 25 minutes in length.
This section seeks works that challenge the limits of audiovisual language through hybrid forms between fiction, documentary and animation in relation to liminal interstices. Films that, through both materiality and subject matter, transcend the boundaries of audiovisual language. Films in which encounters and distances between spaces, human groups, and materialities become manifest.
Interlined Curves / Emerging Official Competition
Works completed between 2024 and 2026, created by emerging filmmakers and/or collectives in their first explorations of image and sound. Films must not exceed 15 minutes in length. Colombian and international.
We seek explorations that challenge limits, interrogate borders, and construct and question fragmentation. Although this section is open to short films from other countries, priority will be given to works produced in Colombian schools and educational institutions.
Vanishing Points / Mid-Length Competition
Works completed between 2024 and 2026. A section dedicated to films between 25 and 40 minutes in length. Colombian and international.
We seek mid-length films that challenge the limits of audiovisual language, constructing and interrogating the image itself from the frontier. We are interested in explorations that question borders and challenge cinematic limits. Documentary films, audiovisual essays, and hybrid works that expand temporal boundaries between short and feature-length cinema are especially welcome.
Geometry of Difference / International Official Competition
Short films completed between 2024 and 2026 with a maximum duration of 25 minutes.
We focus on promoting international experimental cinema, with particular emphasis on auteur animation. This year, we seek films that, through both their materiality and subject matter, express the limits of audiovisual language. Films in which encounters and distances between spaces, human groups, and materialities are made visible.
OPEN CALL
May 20 – July 15
First Deadline — Until June 10
- $9 USD — International
- $4 USD — Latin America
- Free — Emerging Section
Second Deadline — Until July 1
- $12 USD — International
- $6 USD — Latin America
- Free — Emerging Section
Third Deadline — Until July 15
- $18 USD — International
- $8 USD — Latin America
- $4 USD — Emerging Section
Submissions exclusively through:
RULES & REGULATIONS
All films submitted to the 19th edition of the CINETORO Experimental Film Festival must meet the following requirements::
- Films must be between 1 and 50 minutes in length (please check the duration requirements for each section).
- Films must have been completed between 2024 and 2026.
- International films in languages other than Spanish must include subtitles.
- Submissions must be made online exclusively through Festhome, FilmFreeway, and Shortfilmdepot.
- Filmmakers must hold all rights to the artistic material included in the work.
- The festival prioritizes national and international premieres.
- Films not properly registered through this open call will not be accepted.
- Owners of selected films authorize in-person screenings during the festival dates.
- CINETORO understands that the person responsible for the work (director, producer, distributor) owns the distribution and copyright rights. The festival operates in good faith regarding submitted materials and is under no circumstances responsible for disputes concerning music rights, image rights, authorship, or any elements composing the work.
- The festival pays screening fees to national works.
- Upon selection, Spanish-language films must include English subtitles. The festival does not provide subtitling services.
CURATORIAL PROCESS & SELECTION
The festival will program films and works into the different sections according to the curatorial criteria established annually by the programming committee. Information regarding the official selection will be communicated by email. Selected works will be included in the festival’s official catalogue.
Selected films will be notified by email and published on the festival website in August 2026.
Once notified, selected works must submit the following materials online within the deadlines established by the festival’s film traffic coordination:
- Digital file in .MOV / MP4 format (1920 x 1080) in original resolution with H.264 compression scheme or higher.
- DCP file “Flat” 1:85:1 (Optional)
- AUTHORIZATION: Signed License Agreement (template provided by the festival via curaduria@cinetoro.co)
- Poster in JPG format, 72dpi, original size
- 1 photograph of the filmmaker/director in JPG format, 72dpi
- 2 still frames from the work in JPG format, 72dpi
- Promotional photographs and publicity materials may be used by the festival organization to promote the selected work within the festival and related activities
- Project trailer (Optional)
If you have any questions regarding the submission process, please contact us at curaduria@cinetoro.co
By submitting to this open call, filmmakers authorize CINETORO EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL to use all promotional materials provided, including, but not limited to stills, descriptions, director biographies, and screening history, across all media formats for the express purpose of festival promotion and publicity.
Please note that CINETORO EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL may request authorization to use clips from officially selected films for television and internet promotion. However, excerpts will be limited to less than one minute, and no television broadcast of any work will be authorized without the direct consent of the filmmaker and/or producers.