# Ciro Guerra

Ciro Guerra (born 6 February 1981) is a Colombian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his 2015 film Embrace of the Serpent, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards, and for The Wind Journeys, selected as the Colombian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards.

## Career

He made his first film, Wandering Shadows, in 2004 at the age of 23. The film was selected as Colombian submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. His next film, The Wind Journeys, competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and was selected as Colombian submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards; it also was not selected.
His 2015 film Embrace of the Serpent was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the C.I.C.A.E. Award. It won the Best Film award in the International Film Festivals of Odesa and Lima, where it also received a special prize from the Critics Jury. The film was also among the nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards, being the first Colombian film ever to be nominated.
On 22 November 2017, Netflix ordered the limited series Green Frontier to production. Green Frontier is based on an original idea from Diego Ramírez Schrempp and Jenny Ceballos of Dynamo Producciones. Guerra is credited as an executive producer of the series, alongside, Diego Ramírez Schrempp, Andrés Calderón, Jorge Dorado and Cristian Conti. The series was directed by Guerra, Laura Mora Ortega and Jacques Toulemonde Vidal and written by Mauricio Leiva-Cock, Antón Goenechea, Camila Brugrés, Gibrán Portela, Javier Peñalosa, María Camila Arias, Natalia Santa and Nicolás Serrano. The miniseries premiered on Netflix on 16 August 2019.
In 2018, Guerra released his fourth feature film, Birds of Passage, which was filmed in La Guajira Desert, Colombia. Guerra states that it is "like a gangster film, but something completely different from any gangster film that you have ever seen".
Guerra has also directed an adaptation of J. M. Coetzee's novel Waiting for the Barbarians, starring Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson, Gana Bayarsaikhan, and Greta Scacchi. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 6 September 2019, and was released on 7 August 2020, by Samuel Goldwyn Films.
He was the jury president of the International Critics' Week section of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.

## Personal life

Guerra was married to his longtime producer Cristina Gallego. The couple divorced during the filming of Birds of Passage, which they co-directed.
In 2020, Latin American feminist periodical Volcánicas published the story of eight women in the film industry accusing Guerra of sexual harassment. Guerra denied the accusations and vowed to pursue legal action against those who had made them. In May 2021, a court in Bogotá, Colombia, ruled in favour of Guerra and ordered the magazine to rectify its report, as their claims lacked detail and evidence. In response, in the same month, Volcánicas published more details and new accusations in their investigation. After a legal battle, the Constitutional Court of Colombia overruled and revoked all previous decisions, denying Guerra's pretentions (thus confirming the journalists' right to free speech).

## Filmography

| Year | Film | Credited as | Credited as | Credited as |
| Year | Film | Director | Writer | Notes |
| 1998 | Silence | Yes | | Short. |
| 1999 | Documental siniestro: Jairo Pinilla, cineasta | Yes | | Documentary. |
| 2000 | Alma | Yes | Yes | Short. |
| 2001 | Intento | Yes | Yes | Animated short film. |
| 2004 | Wandering Shadows | Yes | Yes | |
| 2009 | The Wind Journeys | Yes | Yes | |
| 2015 | Embrace of the Serpent | Yes | Yes | |
| 2018 | Birds of Passage | Yes | | Co-directed with Cristina Gallego. |
| 2019 | Green Frontier | Yes | | Netflix mini-series. Executive producer. |
| 2019 | Waiting for the Barbarians | Yes | | |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Association | Nominated work | Category | Result |
| 2003 | San Sebastián International Film Festival | Wandering Shadows | Films in Progress Award | Won |
| 2009 | Cannes Film Festival | The Wind Journeys | Award of the City of Rome | Won |
| 2009 | Cannes Film Festival | The Wind Journeys | Un Certain Regard Award | Nominated |
| 2015 | Mar del Plata International Film Festival | Embrace of the Serpent | Golden Ástor | Won |
| 2016 | Academy Awards | Embrace of the Serpent | Best Foreign Language Film | Nominated |
| 2016 | Durban International Film Festival | Embrace of the Serpent | Best Direction | Won |
| 2016 | Independent Spirit Awards | Embrace of the Serpent | Best International Film | Nominated |
| 2016 | Platino Awards | Embrace of the Serpent | Best Director | Won |
| 2016 | Platino Awards | Embrace of the Serpent | Best Screenplay | Nominated |

### Accolades

* 2021 - Jury member at 52nd International Film Festival of India, Goa.