The festival takes place since 1984. Since 1995 a video competition has been included into the festival programming.
The festival was initially created to reward Colombian film production. For its second edition, the festival brought together national and other Andean countries cinematography, and continued to honor productions from the Caribbean Islands, South America, Spain, France, Africa and the Pacific Coast.
At the present the festival is recognized by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) as a world wide festival specialized in new directors' feature films. (as of 2006)