Development Martín Rodríguez, journalist, writer, political analyst and a friend of director
Santiago Mitre, originally gave him the suggestion to make a film about the
Trial of the Juntas in 2016. Rodríguez joined the project as a historical researcher and adviser, and later brought screenwriter, producer and journalist Federico Scigliano on as a collaborator, working throughout 2017. They constructed a "'
state of the art' on debates and discussions around the trial and the time", offering "possible ideas, entry points, and threads" on the subject which had a certain level of topicality. Their work took place in the early stages of development, when the story had not yet taken shape. They centered their work on the trial itself as a founding event of Argentine democracy. Their methodology consisted of interviewing many of the people who had participated in the trial and were still alive, such as
Luis Moreno Ocampo,
León Arslanián, Judith König, Carlos "Maco" Somigliana, and
Enrique "Coti" Nosiglia, who served as
Minister of the Interior for president
Raúl Alfonsín in 1987. Mitre attended some of those interviews, during which he searched for possible lines of dialogue and narratives, such as when Moreno Ocampo told them that his mother "attended mass with Jorge Rafael Videla|[Jorge Rafael] Videla". Mitre spoke to the judges of the trial, as well as witnesses and members of the prosecutorial team, to understand their emotions at the time. He also met with Strassera's son Julián. Work on the screenplay began around five years before the film's release, with Mitre starting the first draft during the editing stage of his previous film,
The Summit (2017). Originally, writer
Mariano Llinás and Mitre conceived the film to be a more episodic
hyperlink film, with "several intertwined stories", changing
points of view, time jumps, mixing genres and including fantastical elements, but producer Axel Kuschevatzky told them the film should be more classical in nature and focus solely on the trial, which Llinás considered liberating because it opened the door to comedic segments. He nonetheless had difficulty writing the script, as it was based on real events, many of its characters were still alive, and the public had differing opinions on the subject. Mitre mentioned
political thrillers ''
All the President's Men (1976) and The Post (2017) as influences for "the tension of contemporary cinema" and "a very energetic concept of group work", as well as the Chilean film No (2012), which is also about a democratic transition in Latin America. Kuschevatzky also brought up Steven Spielberg, Otto Preminger, and Costa-Gavras as filmmakers they considered influential for Argentina, 1985''.
John Ford was cited as a reference for the film for his tradition of
classical cinema and comedic tone.
Pre-production , co-writer, director, and producer of the film Actor
Ricardo Darín, who had become friends with Mitre after starring in
The Summit, suggested playing Strassera when Mitre first presented him the idea to adapt the events of the
Trial of the Juntas. After reading the first draft of the script, Darín took the role, despite generally not being interested in playing characters based on real people, and became a producer on the film as well. To play Moreno Ocampo, Kuschevatzky suggested his longtime friend, actor
Peter Lanzani, whom Mitre cast in the role as he considered him "one of the most interesting actors of his generation". Mariana Mitre, the film's
casting director and the director's sister, opted to get unknown actors for the supporting roles of both the young investigators and the testifiers, to have "the best possible sense of verisimilitude". Mitre, along with Darín and Lanzani, decided not to have them mimic the voice and mannerisms of the actual Strassera and Moreno Ocampo, taking artistic liberty with their performances. Similarly, Laura Paredes initially tried to imitate
Adriana Calvo's actual tone of voice but found it made the performance seem artificial and disconnected. She then opted to speak closer to her own tone instead, which "paradoxically" made her resemble the character more. Conversations with
Amazon Studios began in 2020 amid the
COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Amazon joined the project as a production company once the script was already finished and the casting was already determined. The film did not make use of funding by the
National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA), as suggested by Amazon given they could finance it on their own. The film's original title was just
1985 but was changed to
Argentina, 1985 after Amazon's involvement out of a necessity for clarity about the film's subject. Long-time
Marvel Studios producer
Victoria Alonso joined the project after watching a first version of the film, which she considered to be "a pending subject", and donated her salary to the making of the film.
Filming Production was originally scheduled to begin in 2020, but it was delayed due to the pandemic. Pre-production took place entirely virtually, and the crew met for the first time on set. Filming began in June 2021 and lasted 10 weeks until September, taking place primarily in
Buenos Aires, as well as in
Rosario, Santa Fe, for two days and in
Salta for four days. The film was shot at the locations where the real events took place, such as the original courtroom at Tribunales, which looked "practically the same" as it did in 1985. Strassera's apartment and office were sets built for the film. The same type of
U-matic cameras that had originally been used to broadcast the trial were also used for its recreation during the trial scenes, to be able to seamlessly insert archival footage of the actual trial.
Javier Juliá, the cinematographer, did not want the film to look "old, or nostalgic", instead going for a more contemporary look. He also chose not to mimic the actual archive footage from the trial, in which witnesses were filmed from behind for protection, as he and Mitre wanted to make the audience "feel they were there bearing witness too". Juliá employed a
large format lens with a shallower
depth of field to focus on the witnesses instead of on the context around them; he shot the courtroom scenes with an
Arri Alexa LF and Signature Prime lenses, using "classic and restrained camera movement" such as
dolly tracks and
cranes. For contrast, Juliá captured the scenes outside the courtroom with the Alexa LF and vintage
Canon FD lenses. He shot with wider lenses, which brought "texture and rawness" to the footage, and
hand-held camera movements to convey "the energy amongst the legal team or the tension in the Strassera household". The film was shot in a
3:2 aspect ratio, commonly used by classic
35-mm film cameras, which made them frame the film differently and helped them avoid a feeling of nostalgia.
Argentina, 1985 was Micaela Saiegh's first time as an
art director in a
period film, having previously worked in the genre as an assistant. Mitre wanted the film not to have an aesthetic typical of the eighties despite taking place in that decade. According to Saiegh, her job was "to be invisible", not to let her work stand out from the rest of the film and overshadow the story. ==Music==