The Brilliance of Argentine Cinema and Its Global Stars

By the ULTIMATE Buenos Aires Editorial Team

From the tango films to two Oscars

In the 1930s the Lumiton and Argentina Sono Film studios made Buenos Aires the film capital of the Spanish-speaking world, with tango melodramas and stars such as Libertad Lamarque, while Carlos Gardel sang in films seen across the continent. In the 1950s Leopoldo Torre Nilsson brought a new, personal style with La casa del ángel.

In 1986 Luis Puenzo’s The Official Story, about a teacher who discovers the truth about her adopted daughter in the years of military rule, won the Oscar. A new wave followed around 2000, from Fabián Bielinsky’s Nine Queens to Lucrecia Martel’s La ciénaga, and Juan José Campanella’s The Secret in Their Eyes won the country’s second Oscar.

Must-watch films

To understand Argentine cinema, start with these.

• The Official Story (1985): Luis Puenzo’s drama, with Norma Aleandro, winner of the Oscar.
• Nine Queens (2000): Fabián Bielinsky’s twisting tale of two Buenos Aires con men.
• La ciénaga (2001): Lucrecia Martel’s sultry portrait of a family in the summer heat.
• The Secret in Their Eyes (2009): Campanella’s thriller and love story, with Ricardo Darín, winner of the Oscar.
• Wild Tales (2014): Damián Szifron’s six darkly funny stories of revenge, an Oscar nominee.

The stars

Argentina’s actors are admired throughout the Spanish-speaking world.

• Libertad Lamarque (1908–2000): the singing star of the golden age of the 1930s and 1940s.
• Norma Aleandro: joint winner of best actress at Cannes for The Official Story.
• Ricardo Darín: the country’s best-loved actor, from Nine Queens to Argentina, 1985.
• Cecilia Roth: the star of Pedro Almodóvar’s All About My Mother.
• Héctor Alterio: the veteran of The Official Story and The Son of the Bride.

Where to watch in Buenos Aires

Every April BAFICI, the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival, founded in 1999, fills the city’s screens with new cinema from around the world. All year, the Cine Gaumont on Avenida Rivadavia is the home of Argentine films at modest prices, and the cinema at MALBA shows classics and retrospectives. Each November the Mar del Plata festival, founded in 1954, is a short trip south.

Our advice: see a new Argentine film at the Gaumont, then walk to the cafés of Avenida de Mayo.

Cine Gaumont →   MALBA →

Hidden on the silver screen: international productions filmed in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, with its tango halls and colourful port quarter, has drawn directors from around the world.

• Happy Together (1997): Wong Kar-wai’s love story of two men far from Hong Kong, winner of best director at Cannes.
• The Tango Lesson (1997): Sally Potter’s black-and-white film about learning tango in Buenos Aires.
• Tetro (2009), La Boca: Francis Ford Coppola chose the old Italian port quarter for his family drama.

Argentines abroad

Argentine talent travels well. Cecilia Roth and Héctor Alterio became stars in Spain, the composer Gustavo Santaolalla won two Oscars in a row for the scores of Brokeback Mountain and Babel, and Argentine stories have been remade in Hollywood, from Nine Queens as Criminal to The Secret in Their Eyes in 2015. Santiago Mitre’s Argentina, 1985 won the Golden Globe.

Questions and answers