Chilean filmmaker Manuela Martelli will return to the Cannes Film Festival in 2026 with her second feature film, El deshielo. The announcement was made this morning by festival president Iris Knobloch and general delegate Thierry Frémaux during a press conference regarding the official selection for the 79th edition.
With this selection, Martelli becomes the first Chilean director to compete in the Un Certain Regard section with a fiction feature. The last Chilean filmmaker to reach this specific category with a fiction film was Carmen Castillo in 2007, who presented the documentary Calle Santa Fe.
El deshielo is set in 1992, during Chile's transition to democracy. The drama follows Inés, a ten-year-old girl living with her grandparents at a ski resort in the Andes, as she forms a bond with a 16-year-old German skier who suddenly disappears.
A historical exploration
The film continues Martelli's focus on recent Chilean history, following her 2022 debut, 1976. While her first film examined the early years of the military dictatorship, this new project explores the loss of innocence against the backdrop of a recovering democracy.
The cast includes prominent Chilean actors Paulina Urrutia and Mauricio Pesutic. The production, led by producer Alejandra García of Ronda Cine, was filmed in the winter of 2025 in the Antillanca ski center near Osorno.
“We put so much love and dedication into it that it moves us that the film has connected with those who have already seen it,” García told Culto. “To be at the most important festival in the world is deeply moving for us.”
El deshielo is an international co-production involving companies from Chile, Spain, Mexico, and the United States. The film features dialogue in Spanish, English, and German, with sales handled by the French agency Les Films du Losange.
Martelli's selection reinforces a recent period of success for Chilean cinema at Cannes. The country has seen several titles in Un Certain Regard over the last five years, including works by Felipe Gálvez and Diego Céspedes.
