A winner at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, A Poet follows a failed writer named Oscar (first-time actor Ubeimar Rios) on a wincingly funny downward spiral. Unemployed and living with family, Oscar wanders the streets of Medellín in a drunken stupor, lamenting the state of literature in his home country, where he has succumbed to the cliché of the tortured artist. However, the opportunity to mentor a young student offers a chance at redemption—if he doesn’t screw it up first. Winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, A Poet is a raw and riotous farce that stands as a breakthrough for both director Simón Mesa Soto and the mesmerizing Rios, who’s unforgettable as a glutton for cruel and unusually poetic punishments.
A Poet
A Poet
Tickets: $20 (members), $25 (nonmembers)
"Driven by a compelling performance from non-professional Ubeimar Rios as a man out of time, Mesa Soto’s second feature is simultaneously satisfyingly tragic and hilarious."
"Its tone shifts from absurdist to serious to satirical and back again. This odd mix should not work, but Soto pulls it off with a sure hand and precisely exacting storytelling. That it succeeds in being both funny and poignant makes A Poet even more of an achievement."
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PAST EVENTS
Q&A with director Simón Mesa Soto moderated by Justin LaLiberty
Tuesday, Jan. 27 2026, 7:00
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- Simón Mesa Soto is a Colombian director, screenwriter, and producer. He studied Audiovisual Communication at the University of Antioquia and later pursued a Master’s Degree at the London Film School. His thesis film, Leidi, won the Short Film Palme d’Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. With his next short film, Mother, he was again selected to the Official Competition of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Both short films were widely screened at festivals around the world. Amparo, his first feature film, premiered at the 2021 Cannes Critics’ Week, where it won the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for its lead actress. The film has toured more than fifty film festivals around the world and won awards in Havana, Chicago, Lima, and Punta del Este, among other festivals. Amparo was the big winner of the Colombian Film Academy’s 2022 Macondo Awards, winning seven awards including Best Director and Best Film. A Poet is his second feature film.
- Justin LaLiberty is the Director of Operations at OCN Distribution, sister company of Vinegar Syndrome, which handles distribution and production for physical home video of nearly fifty film companies. He has worked as a film programmer, archivist, and projectionist for various institutions, including the Jacob Burns Film Center. He is a regular contributor to Screen Slate and Letterboxd's Journal and has bylines in Filmmaker Magazine, Bright Wall/Dark Room, and other publications. You can find him on social media, on most platforms, @j_lalibs.
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