Split Screen Takes International Rights to 'The End of Times' Ahead of Venice Premiere
Split Screen, a sales outfit based in Zagreb, has secured international rights to The End of Times ahead of the film's world premiere in Critics' Week at the Venice Film Festival. The deal positions the Colombian essay film for distribution beyond its home territory as it heads into one of the festival circuit's most watched showcases. (Variety)
Directed by Bibiana Rojas Gómez and Juan David Cárdenas Maldonado, The End of Times runs 80 minutes and blends five decades of family archive footage with artificial intelligence. The story follows a character named Salomé, who sifts through decades of home-recorded material searching for the source of her mother's sadness. Through AI, Salomé experiences firsthand how difficult it is to imagine another version of the world. (Variety)
The film is described as a radical essay film, a label that signals its rejection of conventional narrative in favour of a meditation built from found images and machine-generated material. It was selected for the 41st edition of the Settimana Internazionale della Critica — the independent sidebar known internationally as Critics' Week, which runs parallel to the main Venice competition. (Yahoo Entertainment; SIC Venice)
The 2026 Critics' Week lineup features films from Colombia, China, and Tunisia, among others. (Yahoo Entertainment)
Luis Esguerra Cifuentes produced the film through Bruma Cine, his Colombia-based company. Rojas Gómez co-produced through her label A Fuego Lento, and Cárdenas Maldonado co-produced through Allegro Films. Atomic Media Group served as associate producer. All three companies are Colombian. (Variety)
Split Screen's Marcella Jelic and Lorena Morin spoke about the film in connection with the rights announcement, though their full remarks were reported by Variety. (Variety)
For a film this personal in its material — half a century of one family's footage — the leap to international sales is not a small one. Festival sidebars like Critics' Week function as a marketplace as much as a showcase: sales agents, distributors, and festival programmers watch these slots closely, and a rights deal signed before the premiere means buyers will arrive in Venice already knowing the film is available. Split Screen's involvement gives The End of Times a dedicated team working to place it with distributors territory by territory, the pipeline that determines whether a festival film reaches cinemas beyond the circuit.
The film does not yet have a theatrical release date outside the festival.
