68 years ago, the first edition of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival. From that moment until today, audiences have witnessed the transformation and growth of the global film industry. The only Category “A” meeting in Latin America was conceived in 1954 under the presidency of Juan Domingo PeronWhat First Cinematographic Showof a non-competitive nature, in which cinema was highlighted as a show.
Mar del Plata was chosen as the venue for this film festival because it was the tourist destination for the wealthy classes, along with the emerging middle class, at that time. At its debut, 18 countries were represented by 52 feature films and 49 short films from legendary filmmakers such as Vittorio de Sica, Luis Buñuel and Ingmar Bergman, among many others. Thus, a space of interest in collective culture was inaugurated that made possible the creation of the so-called Mar del Plata International Film Festival.
The Festival became competitive only in 1959, like most of its European peers in Venice and Cannes. The organization of the awards was in charge of the Association of Argentine Cinematographic Chroniclers, with the appearance of the Juries and the awards. Year after year, the awards gained prestige and the event grew to become the most important in Latin America. In 1959, the official statuette was named “The Gaucho”a creation of the sculptor Pascual Buigues.
The successive changes of government and military processes resulted in only ten editions being held from 1959 to 1970. The one in 1964 was in the city of Buenos Aires, and in 1967 and 1969 it alternated with the Rio de Janeiro Festival. European cinematographies were represented, among others, by the Nouvelle Vague french from Truffaut and Godardthe most outstanding cinema from socialist countries such as Hungary and Czechoslovakia, the best Italian neorealism at the hands of Rossellini and De Sica and the irruption of the Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergmann. From the United States came films that, due to their high technical and acting level, were awarded on several occasions.
Over the years, the Festival established itself as a space for reflection on the new cinematographic movements and received theorists, journalists and filmmakers from all latitudes. Among the international personalities who attended are remembered Paul Newman, Vittorio Gassman, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anthony Perkins, Ugo Tognazzi, Maria Callas, Maria Schell, George Hamilton, Cantinflas, François Trufffaut, Tony Richardson, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Gilo Pontecorvo, Andrzej Wajda, Jacques Tati, Toshiro Mifune, Curt Jürgens, Cesare Zavattini, Josef von Sternberg, Alfred Bauer, Abel Gance, Vincent Minelli, Lee Strassberg, James Mason, and Ettore Scola.
In 1996, at the height of Menemism, the second stage of the Festival began after 26 years of absence. The cinematographic meeting was repositioned as an essential artistic event for the entire cinematographic panorama. The FIAPFthe federation that brings together the most prestigious and recognized film festivals in the world, kept the event in its highest category and also won the “astor” as the official recognition statuette.
Since then, to this part, they have attended the Festival, among many other personalities, Jacqueline Bisset, Raquel Welch, Francisco Rabal, Lina Wertmüller, Arturo Ripstein, Pilar Miró, Dino Risi, Abbas Kiarostami, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Catherine Deneuve, Geraldine Chaplin, Sonia Braga, Emily Watson, Julie Delpy, Nikita Mijalkov, Alex de la Iglesia , Liv Ullman, Jeremy Irons, Gerard Depardieu, Helen Mirren, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Mario Monicelli, Kathleen Turner, Héctor Babenco, Ken Russell, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Abel Ferrara, Juliette Binoche, Sarah Polley, Kathryn Bigelow, Tommy Lee Jones, Willem Dafoe, Bong Joon-ho, John Landis and Viggo Mortensenamong many others.
The Mar del Plata Film Festival 2022chaired by Fernando Juan Lima, will be held from November 3 to 13 with numerous guests and films. In addition to the more than 80 films that will be screened, both in the competitive and panorama sections, there will be activities for the entire public. Talks with established Directors, dialogue with new talents, thematic focuses, Original Soundtrack, 8mm and 16mm films, join the classic shows such as Zero Hour, VHS Generation and Open Veins. All under the artistic direction of the brand new programmer, editor and curator Paul Count.
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