2025 has been an exceptional year for Paraguayan cinema. With state funding expanding, a growing number of national productions, and a continuous presence in international festivals, the industry is moving with confidence and ambition. Paraguayan documentaries have gained visibility, with more professionals joining the field and more stories proving that Paraguayan narratives can stand out across the region.
Two recent documentaries have become milestones within this upward trajectory: Kuarahy Ára: El tiempo del Sol, directed by Hugo Gamarra, and Bajo las banderas, el sol, by Juanjo Pereira. Both continue to collect significant awards abroad, strengthening Paraguay’s position within the global documentary landscape.
Kuarahy Ára: El tiempo del Sol
Kuarahy Ára: The Time of the Sun (El tiempo del Sol) is directly connected to another work: “Kuarahy Ohecha” (“What the Sun Sees”), a French production filmed in 1968 by Dominique Dubosc. Dubosc’s original documentary was an ethnographic portrait of a peasant family in the Caazapá department. After a laboratory accident in Buenos Aires destroyed part of the material, the project was abandoned. Yet a surviving 16 mm copy in Asunción remained, and that is the version Gamarra watched as a teenager.
Decades later, inspired by that memory, Gamarra decided to search for both the family from Caazapá and the French director. The documentary roots itself in reconnection, time, and the emotional frontiers that emerge when one revisits the past. The documentary examines cinema’s unique ability to preserve, recover, and reinterpret memories that would otherwise vanish. This thematic focus aligns naturally with Gamarra’s work as founder of both the Paraguayan Cinematheque and the Asunción International Film Festival. The documentary features dialogue in Spanish, Guaraní and French.
Praised by festival juries worldwide
Kuarahy Ára recently added another accolade: Best International Feature Film at the Buenos Aires International Documentary Film Festival (FIDBA), with Gamarra also receiving Best Director in the International Competition.
The jury praised the documentary for building “a close and sensitive narrative capable of moving the viewer and inviting deep reflection on the passage of time, the intangible value of audiovisual memory and the enduring charm of cinema.”
Its award run has been outstanding. It collected two awards in India in July, including Best International Feature and Best International Documentary. Across Europe, it picked up a Special Jury Prize in Portugal and an Honourable Mention in Germany. Audiences in Brazil also recognised it, voting it Best Film – People’s Choice Award at a feature film showcase.
These achievements confirm Kuarahy Ára as one of the most remarkable documentaries ever produced in Paraguay, and a powerful example of how Paraguayan storytelling resonates far beyond national borders.
Bajo las banderas, el sol
Bajo las banderas, el sol (Under the Flags, the Sun) is built from previously unpublished audiovisual material recorded during Alfredo Stroessner’s thirty-five-year dictatorship. With images gathered from multiple countries and presented without direct narration, Juanjo Pereira constructs a portrait of Paraguayan history made entirely from archival fragments.
The film is an international coproduction involving Paraguay, Argentina, the United States, France and Germany, funded by both national and international programmes. It premiered at the Berlinale Film Festival, where it won the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Award for Best Film in the Panorama section.
That first recognition signalled what was to follow: Human Values Award at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and winner of International Competition Award in the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival (BAFICI). Later in the year, it won the Trophy Spondylus for Best Documentary in Lima, Perú. Then it won the New Talent Award DocLisboa in Portugal.
Most recently, it won Best Feature Film in the Ibero-American Documentary Feature Film Competition in Viña del Mar, Chile. The festival described it as “a luminous work that reconstructs memory from scattered filmic fragments, reaffirming the archive as a political act.”
The Paraguayan Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences chose the documentary to represent Paraguay at the Goya Award for Best Ibero-American Film and at the Academy Awards in the Best International Film category.
A future strengthened by memory
The international recognition of both documentaries marks a decisive moment for Paraguayan cinema. These works demonstrate that the country’s stories, whether intimate or political, contemporary or historical, have the power to travel, provoke reflection and capture audiences around the world. Their success contributes to building a stronger, more confident cultural identity and opens the door for the next generation of filmmakers.
Paraguayan cinema is transforming itself, and these award-winning documentaries stand as proof that the nation’s audiovisual memory is not only being recovered, but also projected towards a future where its stories continue to resonate internationally.
