The beginning In 1896, French photographer
Eugene Py was working for the
Belgian Henri Lepage and the Austrian
Max Glücksmann at the 'Casa Lepage', a photographic supplies business in Buenos Aires. The three all saw the debut of the Lumière Cinématographe in Argentina,"with a picture of the Lumiére's, took place on 18 July 1896" at the
Teatro Odéon, only a year after its debut in Paris. Lepage then imported the first French cinematographic equipment into the country and though
Eugenio Py who, using a
Gaumont camera in 1897, is often credited for the first Argentine film,
La Bandera Argentina (which consisted of a
flag of Argentina waving in the wind at the
Plaza de Mayo), the credit belongs to German-Brazilian
Federico Figner, who screened the first three Argentine films on 24 November 1896 (shorts depicting sights of Buenos Aires). Earning renown, Py continued to produce films for exhibition at the Casa Lepage for several years, following up with
Viaje del Doctor Campos Salles a Buenos Aires (1900, considered the country's first documentary) and
La Revista de la Escuadra Argentina (1901); by that time, the first projection halls had opened, working as part of the cross-national film production,
distribution and
exhibition system developed by Glücksmann in
Argentina,
Uruguay and Chile.
Early developments '' (1914), the first full-length movie of national production. Several Argentine artists continued to experiment with the new invention, making news shorts and documentaries.
Eugenio A. Cardini filmed
Escenas Callejeras (1901) and
Mario Gallo made the first Argentine film with a point-of-view:
El fusilamiento de Dorrego ("
Dorrego's Execution," 1908). Other directors such as
Ernesto Gunche directed early documentaries. The
Argentine history and
literature provided the themes of the first years of film-making. One of the first successes of the national cinema was
Nobleza Gaucha of 1915, inspired by
Martín Fierro, the
gaucho poem by
José Hernández. Based on
José Mármol's novel,
Amalia was the first full-length movie of national production, and in 1917
El Apóstol, a satiric short on president
Hipólito Yrigoyen, became the first animated feature film in world cinema. Another notable 1917 debut, for Francisco Defilippis Novoa's
Flor de durazno, was
Carlos Gardel. v.
Porteño (1915) was the first
football match filmed in the country. Directors such as
José A. Ferreyra began to work on producing films in Argentine cinema, releasing films such as
Palomas rubias (1920),
La Gaucha (1921) and
Buenos Aires, ciudad de ensueño in 1922. Films that followed included
La Maleva,
Corazón de criolla,
Melenita de oro,
Leyenda del puente inca (1923),
Odio serrano,
Mientras Buenos Aires duerme,
Arriero de Yacanto (1924) and
El Organito de la tarde and
Mi último tango (1925). In 1926, Ferreyra released
La Vuelta al Bulín,
La Costurerita que dio aquel mal paso and
Muchachita de Chiclana followed by
Perdón, viejita (1927). Many of these Ferreyra films featured two of the decade's most popular stars,
Alvaro Escobar and
Elena Guido. Towards the end of the decade, directors such as
Julio Irigoyen began to release films such as
Alma en pena in 1928. Films such as these began to feature the Argentine culture of
tango dancing into films, something which rocketed later in the 1930s after the advent of sound.
1930s–1950s: The Golden Age surrounded by dancers in a scene from
Lumiton's
Los tres berretines (1933). Together with
Argentina Sono Film's
¡Tango! (1933), it ushered the emergence of the
Golden Age of Argentine cinema. The
Golden Age of Argentine cinema (
Spanish:
Época de Oro or
Edad de Oro del cine argentino), sometimes known interchangeably as the broader classical or classical-industrial period (Spanish:
período clásico-industrial), quickly becoming one of the most popular film industries across
Latin America and the
Spanish-speaking world. As in other countries, the arrival of sound films put in check the international dominance of American cinema due to the language barrier, leaving a market available. This situation was analogous to the one that occurred during World War I, when the European film crisis benefited Argentine producers. Hollywood tried to deal with these difficulties with attempts at
dubbing that ended up failing and also with various forms of
subtitling, although this still required technical development and also excluded illiterate audiences. Eventually, the U.S. industry reacted by making little accepted Spanish-language versions of its most important productions, although they found the greatest success once they began to make produce original Spanish-language films made to showcase Latin American stars. Among them, the 1931–1935 films made by
Paramount Pictures starring
Carlos Gardel stood out, and became a major influence on the emergence of an Argentine sound film industry. Before being hired by Paramount, Gardel—the most popular performer in the history of tango—had starred in a series of short films using optical sound between 1930 and 1931, which were directed by Eduardo Morera and produced by Federico Valle. The first of Gardel's feature films produced by Paramount was
Luces de Buenos Aires, released in September 1931 to great success. By this time optical sound had demonstrated its advantage over disc systems, so the equipment was progressively replaced in a process that lasted throughout 1932. Argentine industrial cinema arose in 1933 with the creation of its first and most prominent
film studios,
Argentina Sono Film and
Lumiton, which released
¡Tango! and
Los tres berretines, respectively, two foundational films that ushered in the
sound-on-film era. Although they were not national productions, the 1931–1935 films made by
Paramount Pictures with tango star
Carlos Gardel were a decisive influence on the emergence and popularization of Argentine sound cinema. The nascent film industry grew steadily, accompanied by the appearance of other studios such as SIDE, Estudios Río de la Plata, EFA, Pampa Film and
Estudios San Miguel, among others, which developed a continuous production and
distribution chain. The number of films shot in the country grew 25-fold between 1932 and 1939, more than any other Spanish-speaking country. By 1939, Argentina established itself as the world's leading producer of films in Spanish, a position that it maintained until 1942, the year in which film production reached its peak. of
Prisioneros de la tierra (1939) by
Mario Soffici, which has been considered the greatest Argentine film of all time on several occasions. In classical Argentine cinema,
film genres were almost always configured as hybrids, with
melodrama emerging as the reigning mode of the period. Its early audience were the urban
working classes, so its content was strongly rooted in
their culture, most notably
tango music and
dance,
radio dramas, and popular theatrical genres like
sainete or
revue. These forms of
popular culture became the main roots of the film industry, from which many of its main performers, directors and screenwriters came. Much of the themes that defined the Argentine sound cinema in its beginnings were inherited from the
silent period, including the opposition between the countryside and the city, and the interest in representing the world of tango. As the industry's prosperity increased in the late 1930s,
bourgeois characters shifted from
villains to protagonists, in an attempt to appeal to the
middle classes and their aspirations. who opposed "commercial" cinema and experimented with new
cinematic techniques.
First "New Cinema" Since the late 1950s a new generation of film directors took Argentine films to international film festivals. The first wave of such directors was
Leopoldo Torre-Nilsson, who "explored aristocratic decadence",
Fernando Ayala,
David Jose Kohon,
Simon Feldman and
Fernando "Pino" Solanas, who began by making
La Hora de los Hornos ("Hour of the Furnaces", 1966–68) the first documentaries on the political unrest in late-1960s Argentina (at great risk to himself). "In 1976, this period of militant documentary and cinematic innovation was violently ruptured by the murder/disappearance of three documentary filmmakers by the Argentine military: Gleyzer, Pablo Szir and Enrique Juarez." Heavily censored from 1975 until about 1980, Argentine film-makers generally limited themselves to light-hearted subjects. Among the productions during that era was
Héctor Olivera's adaptation of
Roberto Cossa's play,
La nona (
Grandma, 1979). The dark comedy became a reference to the foreign debt interest payments that later saddled the
Argentine economy. One director who, even as a supporter of the military regime, delved into middle-class neuroses with frankness was
Fernando Siro, an inventive film-maker seemingly insensitive to many of his colleagues' tribulations, many of whom were forced to leave during the dictatorship. Though his attitudes distanced him from his peers and public, his 1981 tragedy
Venido a menos ("Dilapidated") continues to be influential.
Early 1980s Following a loosening of restrictions in 1980,
muck-raking cinema began to make itself evident on the Argentine screen. Plunging head-long into subjects like corruption and impunity (without directly indicting those in power),
Adolfo Aristarain's
Tiempo de revancha ("Time for Revenge", 1981),
Fernando Ayala's
Plata dulce ("Sweet Money," 1982) and
Eduardo Calcagno's
Los enemigos ("The Enemies," 1983) took hard looks at labor rights abuses, corporate corruption and the day's prevailing climate of fear at a time when doing so was often perilous. Petty corruption was also brought up in
Fernando Ayala's
El Arreglo ("The Deal," 1983).
Post junta cinema A new era in Argentine cinema started after the arrival of democracy in 1983; besides a few memorable exceptions like
Alejandro Doria's family comedy
Esperando la carroza ("Waiting for the Hearse", 1985), the era saw a marked decline in the popularity of slapstick comedies towards films with more serious undertones and subject matter. The first group deals frankly with the repression, torture and the disappearances during the
Dirty War in the 1970s and early 1980s. They include:
Hector Olivera's
Funny Little Dirty War (1983) and the true story
Night of the Pencils (1986);
Luis Puenzo's Academy Award-winning
The Official Story (1985); "Pino" Solanas'
Tangos, the Exile of Gardel (1986) and
Sur ("South", 1987) and
Alejandro Doria's harrowing
Sofia (1987), among others. Among films dealing with past abuses, one German-Argentine co-production that also deserves mention is
Jeanine Meerapfel's
The Girlfriend (1988), where Norwegian leading lady
Liv Ullmann is cast beside locals
Federico Luppi,
Cipe Lincovski,
Victor Laplace and
Lito Cruz. A second group of films includes portrayals of exile and homesickness, like
Alberto Fischermann's
Los días de junio ("Days in June," 1985) and
Juan Jose Jusid's
Made in Argentina (1986), as well as plots rich in subtext, like Miguel Pereira's
Verónico Cruz (1988), Gustavo Mosquera's
Lo que vendrá ("The Near Future", 1988) and a cult favorite,
Martin Donovan's English-language
Apartment Zero (1988). These used metaphor, life's imponderables and hints at wider socio-political issues to reconcile audiences with recent events. This can also be said of treatments of controversial literature and painful 19th century history like
Maria Luisa Bemberg's
Camila (1984),
Carlos Sorin's
A King and His Movie (1985) and
Eliseo Subiela's
Man Facing Southeast (1986).
Contemporary cinema 1990s The 1990s brought another
New Argentine Cinema wave, marked by classical cinema and a twist from
Independent Argentine Production. In 1991, Marco Bechis'
Alambrado ("Chicken Wire") was released. That same year, activist film-maker
Fernando "Pino" Solanas released his third major film,
The Journey (1992), a surreal overview of prevailing social conditions in Latin America. Existential angst continued to dominate the Argentine film agenda, however, with
Eliseo Subiela's
El lado oscuro del corazon ("Dark Side of the Heart," 1992) and Adolfo Aristarain's
A Place in the World (1992) – notable also for its having been nominated for an Oscar. Later in the 1990s, the focus began to shift towards Argentina's mounting social problems, such as rising homelessness and crime.
Alejandro Agresti's
Buenos Aires vice versa (1996) rescued the beauty of feelings in the shadows of poverty in Buenos Aires and
Bruno Stagnaro's
Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes (1997) looked into the human duality of even the most incorrigible and violent individuals. Having an intense past and rich cultural heritage to draw on, directors continued to reach back with moody period pieces like
Eduardo Mignogna's
Flop (1990), Maria Luisa Bemberg's
De eso no se habla ("You Don't Discuss Certain Things," 1993, her last and one of Italian leading man's
Marcello Mastroianni's last roles, as well), Santiago Oves' rendition of
Rodolfo Walsh's
Agatha Christie-esque tale
Asesinato a distancia ("Murder from a Distance," 1998), as well as bio-pics like
Leonardo Favio's
Raging Bull-esque
Gatica, el mono (1993) and Javier Torre's
Lola Mora (1996). Political history was re-examined with films like
Eduardo Calcagno's controversial take on 1970s-era Argentine film censor Paulino Tato (played by Argentina's most prolific character actor,
Ulises Dumont) in
El Censor (1995), Juan J. Jusid's indictment of the old compulsory military training system,
Bajo Bandera ("At Half Mast," 1997),
Marco Bechis'
Garage Olimpo (1999), which took viewers into one of the dictatorship's most brutal torture dungeons and
Juan Carlos Desanzo's answer to
Madonna's
Evita, his 1996
Eva Perón (a portrait of a far more complex first lady than the one
Andrew Lloyd Webber had taken up). Popular culture had its turn on the Argentine screen. Alejandro Doria's
Cien veces no debo ("I Don't Owe You Forever," 1990) took an irreverent peek into a typical middle-class Argentine home,
Jose Santiso's
De mi barrio con amor ("From My Neighborhood, with Love," 1996) is a must-see for anyone planning to visit
Buenos Aires' bohemian
southside and
Rodolfo Pagliere's
El día que Maradona conoció a Gardel ("The Day
Maradona Met
Gardel," 1996) is an inventive ode to two standards of Argentine culture.
2000s and the cast of
The Secret in Their Eyes (2009) with the
Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Films such as
Fabian Bielinsky's twister
Nine Queens (2000), his gothic
El Aura (2005) and
Juan José Campanella's teary
Son of the Bride (2001) have received praise and awards around the world.
Juan Carlos Desanzo cast
Miguel Ángel Solá (best known for his role in
Tango) as the immortal
Jorge Luis Borges in
El Amor y el Espanto ("Love and Foreboding", 2001), a look at the writer's struggles with
Perón-era intimidation as well as with his own insecurities. Always politically active, Argentine film continues to treat hard subjects, like Spanish director
Manane Rodríguez's look at abducted children,
The Lost Steps (2001) and "Pino" Solanas' perhaps definitive film on the
2001 economic crisis,
Memorias del saqueo ("Memories of the Riot", 2004).
Tristán Bauer took audiences back to soldiers' dehumanizing
Falklands War experience with
Blessed by Fire (2005) and
Adrián Caetano follows four football players through their 1977 escape from certain death in
Chronicle of an Escape (2006).
Lucrecia Martel's 2001 debut feature film
La ciénaga ("The Swamp"), about an indulgent
bourgeois extended family spending the summertime in a decrepit vacation home in
Salta, was internationally highly acclaimed upon release and introduced a new and vital voice to Argentine cinema. For film scholar David Oubiña, it is "one of the highest achievements" of the New Argentine Cinema, coincidentally timed with Argentina's
political and
economic crisis that it "became a rare expression of an extremely troubled moment in the nation's recent history. It is a masterpiece of singular maturity". Martel's succeeding films would also receive further international acclaim, such as the adolescent drama
The Holy Girl (2004), the psychological thriller
The Headless Woman (2008), and the
period drama adaptation
Zama (2017). Responding to its sentimental public, Argentine film at times returns to subjects of the heart.
David Lipszyc's grainy portrait of depression-era Argentina,
El astillero ("The Shipyard", 2000) was a hit with critics,
Paula Hernandez's touching ode to immigrants,
Inheritance (2001), has become something of a sleeper,
Adolfo Aristarain's
Common Places (2002) follows an elderly professor into retirement,
Cleopatra (2003), Eduardo Mignona's tale of an unlikely friendship, received numerous awards, as did
Carlos Sorín's touching
El perro ("The Dog", 2004). Emotional negativity, a staple for filmmakers anywhere, was explored in
Mario Sabato's
India Pravile (2003),
Francisco D'Intino's
La esperanza (2005) and
Ariel Rotter's
El otro ("The Other", 2007) each deals with mid-life crises in very different ways. The pronounced sentimentality of the average Argentine was also the subject of
Robert Duvall's 2002
Assassination Tango, a deceptively simple crime drama that shows that still waters do, indeed, run deep. Buffeted by years of economic malaise and encroachment of the domestic film market by foreign (mainly, US) titles, the Argentine film industry has been supported by the 1987 creation of the National Institute of Cinema and Audioviual Arts (
INCAA), a publicly subsidized film underwriter that, since 1987, has produced 130 full-length
art house titles. The decade ended on a high with the 2009 film
The Secret in Their Eyes receiving critical praise, winning the
Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the
82nd Academy Awards, three weeks after being awarded the
Goya Award for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film of 2009.
2010s In 2014, the
anthology film Wild Tales (
Relatos Salvajes in Spanish) directed by
Damián Szifron was nominated for the
Best Foreign Language Film at the
87th Academy Awards, and won the
Goya Award for
Best Iberoamerican Film.
2020s In 2022,
Argentina, 1985, directed by
Santiago Mitre was nominated for
Best International Feature Film at the
95th Academy Awards, and
Best Film Not in the English Language at the
76th BAFTA Awards. The film won
Best Foreign Language Film at the
80th Golden Globe Awards. ==Argentine films==