Peru makes its debut at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival

This Tuesday, May 13th, the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival opens, with its red carpet, flashbulbs, and highly anticipated premieres. But behind the glitz, another stage attracts professionals of the seventh art: the Film Market. Until May 21st, more than 13,500 industry players meet there to buy, sell, or finance the films of tomorrow. A crucial event for countries that rely on their cinema as a tool for influence. It is in this context that Peru is participating, for the first time, in this major film business event.

Under the banner Film in Peru , the tourism promotion organization Promperú is highlighting the country's assets as a full-scale filming backdrop. From sacred mountains to Amazonian forests, from colonial cities to the deserts of the Pacific coast: these are landscapes that have already attracted several international productions.

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Peru is no stranger to cinemas. In 2023, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts thrust Machu Picchu and Cusco into the spotlight, with several scenes filmed in the heart of the Inca sanctuary and the cobblestone-lined old town. In 2024, Paddington in Peru continued this legacy. The famous British bear returns to the footsteps of his origins, filming in turn the city of Lima, the Andean heights, and the depths of the jungle.

Auteur cinema is not to be outdone. Werner Herzog drew on the raw landscapes of the Peruvian Amazon to make Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) and Fitzcarraldo (1982), two masterpieces filmed in particular in the Loreto region, near Iquitos, and in the Madre de Dios region. These places also seem inhabited, contributing to the mystical atmosphere of these films, which have become cult classics.

As for the series La Reina del Sur , a Spanish-American co-production, it was also set there, between the alleys of Cusco and the Miraflores seafront in Lima.

Also read: From Cusco to Machu Picchu: Peru in the footsteps of the Incas (and Paddington)

At the Film Market, Promperú is highlighting ten iconic regions with strong cinematic potential: Lima, Loreto, Amazonas, Arequipa, Áncash, La Libertad, Junín, Lambayeque, Piura, and Tumbes. At the Peruvian stand, posters and clips reveal breathtaking landscapes: wild beaches, Andean peaks, colonial cities, and lush jungle.

Finally, the website filminperu.com offers (in English) an inventory of iconic filming locations, useful for industry professionals, but also for travelers curious to follow in the footsteps of their favorite films. The idea is simple: each scene becomes an invitation to travel.

Also read : Machu Picchu on foot: four days of hiking (almost) alone in the world on the Inca Trail

Last year, in 2024, this Latin American country swept the board at the World Travel Awards , confirming its status as a must-visit destination. By participating in Cannes in 2025, Peru hopes to attract new productions and cement its status as a filming destination. But the stakes go beyond cinema.

Through these images projected in theaters around the world, it's also a way to inspire travelers, to make them want to explore the Amazon rainforest... A discreet, but formidably effective, influence strategy. And in Cannes' grand theater, Peru enters the stage quietly, but with solid assets in the decor.

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