Colombia\u2019s Oscar entry \u201cA Poet\u201d is one of the most bruisingly funny contenders in this year\u2019s Best International Feature lineup<\/a>, but it still packs plenty of art. Writer\/director Sim\u00f3n Mesa Soto directs first-time actor Ubeimar Rios, whose obsession with poetry in a literary industry bent more toward spectacle has turned him into the stereotypical tortured artist. Until he meets a teenage protege who turns his life well, not quite around, but certainly upside down.<\/p>\n Distributor 1-2 Special is set to release the film, which won the Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize earlier this year, in January. The film\u2019s caustic humor centered around a sad-sack protagonist whose pratfalls recall the work of graphic novelist Daniel Clowes or, more recently, Owen Kline\u2019s A24 movie \u201cFunny Pages.\u201d<\/p>\n More from IndieWire<\/strong><\/p>\n Below, IndieWire debuts the exclusive trailer ahead of preliminary shortlist voting \u2014 which includes Best International Feature, Best Documentary, and more categories \u2014 which begins December 8. The shortlists will be announced Tuesday, December 16. (See our Academy Awards predictions here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the synopsis courtesy of 1-2 Special: \u201cMiddle-aged and erratic, Oscar is a failed writer who has given up on life. Unemployed and living with family, he wanders the streets of Medell\u00edn in a drunken stupor, lamenting the state of literature in his home country, where he has succumbed to the clich\u00e9 of the tortured artist. However, the opportunity to mentor a young student offers a chance at redemption, if he doesn\u2019t screw it up first. In a performance marked by darkly comic pathos, first-time actor Ubeimar Rios stars in Sim\u00f3n Mesa Soto\u2019s Un Certain Regard Jury Prize-winner \u2018A Poet,\u2019 a raw and riotous farce about how good deeds are often met with the universe\u2019s idea of cruel and unusually poetic punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n More on the film from IndieWire\u2019s Critic\u2019s Pick review out of Cannes<\/a> from Ben Croll: \u201cPut together with impressive efficiency \u2014 the film only started shooting in January \u2014 this art-world send-up explores the many fears and frustrations the acclaimed director felt in the decade since making the 2014 short film Palme d\u2019Or winner \u2018Leidi,\u2019 channeling them into a darkly-funny burlesque that speaks of verse while playing like a Dan Clowes comic brought to manic life\u2026 The film\u2019s bawdy sense of humor plays off a non-professional star \u2014 himself a full-time teacher from a nearby school \u2014 that looks like he was drawn by Robert Crumb and acts the part just as well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA Poet\u201d opens in select theaters January 30, 2026, from 1-2 Special<\/a>. Other recent and upcoming releases from the distributor include Harris Dickinson\u2019s \u201cUrchin,\u201d Radu Jude\u2019s \u201cDracula,\u201d Christian Petzold\u2019s \u201cMiroirs No. 3,\u201d and Mark Jenkin\u2019s \u201cRose of Nevada.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of IndieWire<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Indiewire’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Colombia\u2019s Oscar entry \u201cA Poet\u201d is one of the most bruisingly funny contenders in this year\u2019s Best International Feature lineup, but it still packs plenty of art. Writer\/director Sim\u00f3n Mesa Soto directs first-time actor Ubeimar Rios, whose obsession with poetry in a literary industry bent more toward spectacle has turned him into the stereotypical tortured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2164404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[415486,415485,157636,354968,415484,415483],"class_list":["post-2164403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-a-poet","tag-daniel-clowes","tag-indiewire","tag-international-feature","tag-simon-mesa-soto","tag-ubeimar-rios"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/\u2018A-Poet-Trailer-Colombias-Oscar-Entry-Is-a-Hilariously-Caustic.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2164403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2164403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2164403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2164405,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2164403\/revisions\/2164405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2164404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2164403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2164403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2164403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span><\/div>\n