Chilean filmmakers will showcase their work on the international stage at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, scheduled for May 12 to 23, 2026. While no local productions were selected for the festival's official competition, two Chilean films have secured spots in highly regarded parallel sections.
Director Dominga Sotomayor will return to the festival to present her latest feature, "La perra," as part of the Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Cinéastes). The film follows a woman navigating loss within a remote fishing community.
Julien Rejl, the general delegate for the Directors' Fortnight, noted that the film echoes the disappearance of a child from years prior. Sotomayor, 41, previously gained international acclaim in 2018 when she became the first woman to win the Best Director award at the Locarno Film Festival for "Tarde para morir joven."
Chiloé’s dark history hits the Marche du Film
Chilean genre cinema will also receive a spotlight at the Blood Window Showcase, a specialized program within the festival's Marché du Film. The showcase is designed to connect filmmakers with international distributors, investors, and platform executives.
Jorge Olguín’s "Kalkutún, Juicio a los Brujos" was selected as one of six Ibero-American fantasy films for the program. The film is a co-production with Televisión Nacional de Chile and draws inspiration from historical events that occurred on the island of Chiloé in 1880, focusing on themes of witchcraft, faith, and institutional violence.
"Kalkutún comes from a dark memory of southern Chile, where the religious, the political, and the supernatural coexist without clear borders," said director Jorge Olguín. "This selection in Cannes is an opportunity to bring a deeply local story toward a universal dimension."
The film features an ensemble cast including Juan Carlos Maldonado, Camila Oliva, Nicolás Zárate, Bastián Bodenhöfer, and Paulina Eguiluz. Following its debut at the festival, the production is scheduled for a wide release in Chilean theaters this August.
