Festival

On May 6, 1997, with screenings at the Goethe-Institut on Esmeralda Street, the first International Documentary Film Festival began. Its founder and first director, filmmaker Patricio Guzmán, said: "A documentary film festival is a tribute to man's adventure on earth." The first major milestone of that first adventure was the "First Retrospective of Chilean Documentary Film," which gave prominence to great films and filmmakers who were beginning to fade into history. From Laminas de Almahue (1967) by Sergio Bravo to Cien niños esperando un tren (1988) by Ignacio Agüero, the festival demonstrated that memory and human rights would be two of its fundamental pillars.

In 2001, the festival began to offer national and international competitive sections, as well as thematic screenings, retrospectives with international guest directors, and industry and training events. Thus, the event gradually grew in relevance, thanks to a meticulous curatorship committed to bringing together the best documentary films from around the world, as well as providing a space for national productions, which, in parallel with the festival's evolution, steadily matured.

Renamed the Santiago International Documentary Festival (FIDOCS) in 2003, the event later began to be organized under the auspices of the Documentary Cultural Corporation (CULDOC), a non-profit organization that aims to promote documentary film to a wider audience and stimulate local film production.

Starting in 2007, Patricio Guzmán took over as Festival President, while critic and screenwriter Gonzalo Maza took over as its director from that year onward. He held that role until the 2012 edition. The following year, the festival was directed by audiovisual researcher Ricardo Greene; and between 2014 and 2018, FIDOCS was headed by prominent national filmmaker Carlos Flores del Pino. Currently, the festival is directed by researcher and screenwriter Antonia Girardi, who previously served as programming director.

FIDOCS has established itself as the leading space for the meeting, dissemination, and competition of non-fiction film in Chile and Latin America, dedicated to promoting dialogue, reflection, and audience development around documentary filmmaking in a broad and ever-evolving sense. In this regard, the FIDOCS School plays a fundamental role, convening more than fifty film students each year to participate in training activities. Likewise, seeking to represent not only the current state of documentary filmmaking but also the spirit of contemporary cinema, the program explores the diverse paths of documentary filmmaking and the trends of non-fiction, selecting films, short films, installations, and works that address the question of "Reality" by stretching genres and disciplinary boundaries.