Cortópolis turns 20: Córdoba turns back to Latin American short film

An anniversary with its own screen

Cortópolis is back at Córdoba’s Cineclub Municipal for an anniversary edition: the festival turns 20 and runs from Thursday, October 1 to Sunday, October 4, 2026 at Blvd. San Juan 49, according to the official publication by the Municipality of Córdoba dated October 1.

The timing matters because the window is short: this is not a distant seasonal announcement, but a program already taking place this week. For Argentina’s audiovisual scene, the focus is also away from a Buenos Aires red carpet and onto a Córdoba theater devoted to short film, archives and Latin American circulation.

What the 2026 edition offers

The municipal announcement describes a program with local, national and international productions, as well as retrospectives, competitions and meetings around short film. Confirmed strands include a Latin American Competition with recent works from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Cuba.

The festival also sets aside space for Córdoba production and archival perspectives. The same source mentions a selection of shorts from the Instituto Cinematográfico of the Universidad Nacional del Litoral, with works from the 1960s and 1970s, and a meeting dedicated to Raymundo Gleyzer featuring recovered and digitized materials by an audiovisual preservation center at UNC.

The opening and the local pulse

The opening was scheduled for 8:30 p.m. in the Sala Mayor with “Hablan las aves / Afwenchey Yämwethä,” by Rodrigo Montani, presented by the Municipality as a 2026 Argentine short linked to the Gran Chaco and the Wichí community. The opening day also includes a musical intervention by Ampatu, a duo formed by Irupé Rodríguez Ávila and Sandro Rodríguez.

For Friday, the official publication previews a focus on Brazilian filmmaker Marcus Curvelo, a Paola Michaels retrospective and the start of the Córdoba Competition. Since ticket prices and availability were not verified, readers should check the Cineclub Municipal site before planning attendance.

Why Córdoba is worth watching

In an Argentine cultural agenda often read through Buenos Aires, Cortópolis sustains a different scale: a festival working with short formats, regional exchanges and audiovisual memory from Córdoba. That combination frames the short not as a mere step toward feature filmmaking, but as a form with its own circulation, history and community.

The 2026 edition also arrives with a marker of continuity: two decades of programming around short film. In an era of fast consumption and fragmented screens, the festival proposes an experience that is both opposite and contemporary: gathering in a theater to watch brief works, discuss processes and bring archives back into the conversation.