Gala del Sol

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Gala del Sol
Malaga Film Festival 2025 - Gala del Sol (cropped).jpg
Gala del Sol at the Red Carpet of the Malaga 2025 Festival at Malaga City Council
Born (1996-04-07) April 7, 1996 (age 29)
Colombia
Occupation(s)Filmmaker, creative consultant
Years active2016–present

Natalia Hermida, known professionally as Gala del Sol, is a Spanish-Colombian filmmaker. [1] [2] She was nominated for the Student Academy Awards for her Chapman University short film Transient Passengers, in 2018. [3] She is the writer-director of the feature film Rains Over Babel , which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2025. [4]

Contents

Career

Del Sol graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Production from Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts in Los Angeles, California. [5] In 2025, she premiered her genre-blending debut feature film Rains Over Babel (Llueve sobre Babel), a reimagining of Dante's Inferno through a queer, tropical-punk lens. [6] The film is set in the mythical City of Maya, a retrofuturistic version of Cali, Colombia, and follows a group of misfits who converge at Babel, a dive bar doubling as purgatory, where they gamble years of their lives with La Flaca, the city’s personified Grim Reaper. [7] [8] The film had its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and its International Premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. [9] [10] Manuel Betancourt, a film critic for Variety , covered the film’s premiere, writing, “With her Sundance debut, writer-director Gala del Sol announces herself as a fabulous off-kilter voice in contemporary cinema.” [11]

In June 2025, The Hollywood Reporter included Rains Over Babel as one of the "top 10 Hispanic Films of 2025". [12]

The film won the Panorama España Grand Jury Award at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival in April 2025. [13] It went on to win the Jury Award for Best First Feature at the Inside Out Film and Video Festival in Canada, May 2025. [14] On June 29, 2025, it won Best International Feature at the Pride Awards held at the Lincoln Center in New York City. The award was handed by TV personality and queer icon, Dominique Jackson. [15]

In July 2025, Del Sol was named by Variety as one of the "10 Colombian filmmakers to watch". [16]

Del Sol signed for management with M88, a Los Angeles-based talent representation firm, in February 2025. [7]

Filmography

YearTitleContributionNote
2016SekhemDirector, writer, editor and producerShort film
2017GambergerDirector, writer and editorShort film
2018The SandmanDirector and writerShort film
2018Transient PassengersDirector, writer and editorShort film
2025 Rains Over Babel Director, writer, editor and producerFeature film

Awards and nominations

YearResultAwardCategoryWorkRef.
2018Nominated Student Academy Awards AlternativeTransient Passengers [17]
2019Nominated Brooklyn Film Festival Best Experimental Film [18]
2025Nominated Sundance Film Festival NEXT Innovator Award Rains Over Babel [19]
2025Nominated Miami Film Festival Jordan Ressler First Feature Award [20]
2025Nominated San Francisco International Film Festival Golden Gate Award [20]
2025Won Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival Panorama España Award [13]
2025Won Inside Out Film and Video Festival Best First Feature [14]
2025Won Pride Awards Best International Feature [15]
2025Won Out Film Connecticut LGBTQ Film Festival Best Feature Film [21]

References

  1. "Rotterdam 2025 Interview: Rains Over Babel Director Gala del Sol Talks Mythic Worldbuilding, Queer Programming, Personal Healing". screenanarchy.com. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  2. "Gala del Sol". proimagenescolombia.com. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  3. "Meet the 2018 Student Academy Awards Finalists". oscars.org. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  4. "Latido Pounces on Surreal Sundance and Rotterdam Player 'Rains Over Babel'". variety.com. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  5. "Film Festival Corner Update". blogs.chapman.edu. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  6. "The Sexy, Surreal Spanish Soap Opera of Rains Over Babel". slugmag.com. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  7. 1 2 "M88 Signs 'Rains Over Babel' Filmmaker Gala Del Sol". deadline.com. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  8. "'Rains Over Babel': Rotterdam Review". screendaily.com. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  9. "2025 Sundance Film Festival Reveals 92 Projects for Feature Film and Episodic Programs". sundance.org. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  10. "Rains over Babel". iffr.com. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  11. "'Rains Over Babel' Review: This Tropical, Queer Riff on Dante's Inferno Is a Dazzling, Daring Provocation". variety.com. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  12. DIDYME-DÔME, ANDRÉ (June 20, 2025). "Las 10 mejores películas en español de 2025 (hasta la fecha)". The Hollywood Reporter.
  13. 1 2 "La festiva y desmelenada 'Llueve sobre Babel', de Gala del Sol, premio «Panorama España» | Festival Internacional de Cine" (in European Spanish). 2025-04-30. Retrieved 2025-05-24.
  14. 1 2 Jamie Casemore, "Really Happy Someday wins Inside Out 2025’s Best Canadian Feature". Playback , June 3, 2025.
  15. 1 2 "The 2025 PRIDE AWARDS Honors LGBTQIA Trailblazers with Powerful Celebration at Lincoln Center". Count on News 2. June 30, 2025.
  16. De la Fuente, Anna Marie (July 15, 2025). "10 Colombian Directors to Watch". Variety.
  17. "Academy Unveils Finalists for 2018 Student Academy Awards". awn.com. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  18. "Transient Passengers". brooklynfilmfestival.org. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  19. "Sundance 2025: 'Rains Over Babel' Is Queer Cinema That's Wholesome and Transgressive". autostraddle.com. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  20. 1 2 Rains Over Babel (2025) - Awards - IMDb . Retrieved 2025-05-24 via www.imdb.com.
  21. "The Connecticut LGBTQ Film Festival 2025 Awards". Out Film CT. Retrieved July 16, 2025.