In times where algorithms choose for us and the offer of content seems infinite, the desire to see good cinema, the one that bothers, questions, which is written with capital letters and projected in reverential silence, finds new shelters. They are not in the light posters of the mainstream platforms or in the automated recommendations. They are in cured spaces and in catalogs built with cinephile passion. Several platforms make that difference: Cine.ar, Mubi, Xiclos.com and the independents Kinoa.tv and ship that goes.
Each, with its imprint, proposes a tour of cinematographies that rarely step on global rankings. Films that made history, others that barely circulated at festivals, and some that seem made for secret viewers. The great cinema, without stridency.
For now, Cine.ar He resists as a local oasis where Argentine cinema breathes at ease. With more than 1200 available titles, from worship classics to recent premieres, this free platform offers an intimate cartography of our audiovisual identity. They are all: Leonardo Favio with “The romance of Aniceto and the Francisca”, Lucrecia Martel and her hypnotic “La Ciénaga“Pablo Trapero with “The Buenos Aires”, and Damián Szifron in wild pre-relaxes with “Valiente Tiempo”.
But cinema.ar is not just nostalgia: it is also seedbed. In their lists, raw operas, invisible documentaries and short films that never reached the commercial circuit appear. It is the living archive of a cinema that, despite everything, continues to make sense. And the best: within a click, without subscription. A cultural public policy that, in silence, reminds us that Argentine cinema is not past. It is present.
Digital cineclub. Born as an online extension of the mythical Bellinzone video club, the platform Xiclos.com is the project of Fabián Gil Navarropassionate about cinema that understood that streaming can also be handmade. Its catalog is around 900 titles, grouped into thematic cycles: LGBT+films, documentaries, mute cinema, social, European, police, cult and more classic conflicts.
Xiclos is, perhaps, the most “author” platform in its essence. Its “Cineclub” section recovers that logic of meeting and training, with retrospective dedicated to names such as Tarkovski, Mamet, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Michelangelo Antonioni. A jewel of the catalog is “There are no bears” by Jafar Panahi, considered one of the most important worship films in recent years, along with a more historical one, “Night goalkeeper” from Liliana Cavani. The films are in HD and come from independent distributors such as Zeta Films and Mont Blanc.
Behind the project is the story of someone who knew how to resist market logic. Gil Navarro, former Alumnus of the Avellaneda Film School and audiovisual producer, knew that competing with Netflix was not the way. Instead, he opted for a faithful, connoisseur, seeking depth and not consumption. And it shapes a space where cinema is conversation again, discovery, rite.
For this April 2025, Xiclos launches on its platform exclusively two films that left important brands at the film festivals last year, such as “The two Mariette”documentary led by Poli Martínez Kaplun, and the Italian film “There will always be a tomorrow” (“C’è Ancora Domani”)directed by the effervescent Paola Cortellesi.
MUBI It is another international platform with the spirit of Cinemateca. Every day adds a new movie and another leaves the catalog. Thus, it maintains a rotary selection of 30 films on the billboard, as if it were an endless festival. The proposal is not to accumulate but accompany: see cinema like who leaves a gallery. Among its recent titles are “Full with them” by Christopher Andrews, “queer” by Luca Guadagnino and “The Needle Girl” by Magnus von Horn.
But there is also room for the giants of the twentieth century: Michelangelo Antonioni, with “The Adventure” and “Blow-U”; Chantal Akerman and his revolutionary “Jeanne Dielman”; And of course Alfred Hitchcock, the Magician of suspense, with jewels like “The birds” or “the indiscreet window”. MUBI also produces and distributes films, consolidating a global network of author’s cinema lovers.
Finally, two independent and alternative film platforms appear, where the experimental game. Kinoa.tv and ship that goes They offer under a very economical membership, an extensive film catalog that is not found anywhere else. A space where to visualize the filmmakers that will dictate the premieres of the future Argentine and world cinema. A true virtual finding.
The art of looking. Even in the vertigo and voracious consumption that is lived, these platforms invite speed. To look carefully. To return to the images that formed us and discover new ones. Antonioni said that “watching a movie is to discover something we already knew without knowing.” In Cine.ar, Mubi, Xiclos.com, Kinoa.tv and ship that goesthat revelation is available to a click. But not any click. A conscious, almost sacred. Because seeing cinema, when it is good, is also a form of resistance.
