Sightlines · reception

How A Poet was received

2025 · Simón Mesa Soto · A Poet on Sightlines

The arc

Premiered quietly in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2025 and walked off with the Jury Prize — then kept snowballing all year, sweeping festival awards (San Sebastián's Horizontes Latinos, El Gouna, Melbourne) and becoming the top-grossing Colombian film of 2025 at home.

What’s debated

The fun tension among fans: is it a loving tribute to poetry or a brutal roast of it — a film that mocks the 'suffering artist' myth while clearly being made by one?

Its footprint

It became 2025's word-of-mouth pick for anyone who's ever failed at an artistic life — the sad-poet-in-Medellín tragicomedy that critics kept calling one of the best-reviewed films of the year.

Where it stands

A fast-rising festival darling turned Letterboxd hidden gem — Colombia's Oscar submission and the kind of film cinephiles push on friends with 'trust me.'

Did you know? Star Ubeimar Ríos had never acted before — a non-professional discovered for the role — and still won Best Actor at the Lima Film Festival; director Simón Mesa Soto, meanwhile, had won the short-film Palme d'Or back in 2014 for 'Leidi.'