Costa Rican cinema has another rare place on the Cannes stage this week, as director Valentina Maurel competes in Un Certain Regard at the 79th Cannes Film Festival with her new feature Siempre soy tu animal materno, known in English as Forever Your Maternal Animal. The film’s selection puts Maurel in one of Cannes’ main official sections and gives Costa Rica another major cultural moment at the festival, which runs May 12-23 in France.
The film follows Elsa, a 28-year-old woman who returns to Costa Rica after years in Europe and reconnects with her younger sister Amalia, who has moved into a strange mix of isolation, esoteric beliefs and emotional uncertainty. Their father, Nahuel, is distracted by romantic pursuits, while their mother, Isabel, is absorbed in republishing erotic poems from her youth. The story centers on Elsa’s choice: try to save a sister who may not want saving, or leave again.
The cast includes Daniela Marín Navarro as Elsa, Mariangel Villegas, Marina de Tavira and Reinaldo Amién. Cannes lists Maurel as both writer and director, with the feature running 100 minutes. The official Cannes production listing names Wrong Men in Belgium, Geko Films in France, Pimienta Films in Mexico and Tres Tigres among the production contacts.
Maurel’s selection matters because Cannes’ official program has rarely opened this door to Costa Rican feature filmmaking. CRHoy reported the film as the second Costa Rican production to reach an official Cannes section, after Ariel Escalante’s Domingo y la niebla in 2022. Other Costa Rican-linked films and shorts have appeared in Cannes’ parallel sections in recent years, but Un Certain Regard places Maurel’s work inside the festival’s official structure.
For Maurel, the recognition follows years of steady movement through European and Latin American festivals. Born in San José and trained in Brussels, she won first prize at Cannes’ Cinéfondation in 2017 for Paul est là. Her short Lucía en el limbo later screened at Critics’ Week and Toronto, while her first feature, Tengo sueños eléctricos, won the Horizontes Award at San Sebastián and major acting and directing prizes at Locarno.
The new film returns to themes that have marked Maurel’s work: family bonds, young women under pressure, emotional inheritance and the uneasy pull of home. Cannes describes the film as an ensemble story about a mother, two daughters and a return to Costa Rica. Maurel has framed the project around motherhood, sisterhood and coming home, continuing her focus on intimate stories that do not rely on the usual outside expectations placed on Central American cinema.
The film is also arriving as Costa Rica tries to sell more than scenery to the international screen business. Our country is present at Cannes and the Marché du Film with 11 audiovisual companies, including Café Cinema, Café Televisión, Medina Films Productions, Cymbiola Films, Low Light Films, La Pájara Cine, Incendio Cine, Tres Tigres and Atómica Films. Their participation is aimed at building co-production, distribution and investment opportunities for Costa Rican companies.
That industry push comes after a stronger year for film-related investment. PROCOMER reported that Costa Rica attracted $11.17 million in film investment in 2025 through work with 87 international audiovisual projects, including productions linked to Warner Bros. Discovery, Universal and BBC Studios. The film commission handled 141 permits and 280 technical documents tied to those projects.
For Costa Rica, the Cannes moment carries two messages. One is artistic: Maurel’s film shows that local stories can reach one of cinema’s most selective stages without being reduced to tourist imagery or crime headlines. The other is economic: Costa Rican producers are trying to turn festival visibility into a larger role in the international audiovisual business.
Siempre soy tu animal materno will compete for Un Certain Regard prizes, which are scheduled to be announced Friday, one day before Cannes closes. For a small national film industry still building financing, crews and distribution pathways, Maurel’s selection is another sign that Costa Rican cinema is no longer an occasional guest at major festivals. It is becoming a recurring presence.
