The cinema of Argentina has historically been among the most developed in Latin America and one of the most recognized and influential in the Spanish-speaking world. What is known as Argentine cinema is often equated to the cinema of Buenos Aires, as the city and its metropolitan area have historically concentrated the majority of film production, although in every era there have been more or less isolated cinematic experiences outside the capital. Throughout the 20th century, film production in Argentina, supported by the State and by the work of a long list of directors and actors, became one of the major film industries in the Spanish-speaking world. The Golden Age of Argentine cinema took place between the 1930s and 1950s.
Argentina holds the record for the most Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film in Latin America, with two wins: The Official Story (1985) and The Secret in Their Eyes (2009); and has had a total of 8 nominations, making it the most recognized Latin American country in this category. Additionally, Argentina has won 19 Goya Awards for Best Ibero-American Film, more than any other country. In Sight and Sounds Greatest Films of All Time 2022, Lucrecia Martel's La Ciénaga (2001) was the highest-placed Latin American film and the only one to appear in the directors' top 100, appearing in 62nd place.
History 1894–1914: Pioneering years
Argentine cinema is almost as old as cinema in the world. The first early motion pictures introduced to Buenos Aires were Thomas Edison's kinetoscopes, which were brought by Czech businessman Frederico Figner and presented on 18 September 1894—a few months after its first ever exhibition in New York City—in a special press screening. Although they consisted of small, single-view tapes, the kinetoscopes familiarized the local press and the general public with the concept of moving pictures, and the device came to be used as a parameter for all technical explanations regarding cinema. True film projections were only possible thanks to the Lumière brothers' cinematograph, with which a series of presentations were made on 28 July 1896 at the Teatro Odeón.
In 1897, the first projectors and cameras—from the Lumière and Gaumont firms—reached the country through Enrique Lepage's photography store, Casa Lepage. Their technician, the French Eugenio Py, became the first person to systematically film in Argentina; he shot the 1897 short La bandera argentina, a register of the national flag which is generally considered the country's first film. Other authors consider that the first films belong to Frederico Figner, who shot different views with a vitascope in 1896, aided by the camarographer José Steimberg. In addition to Lepage and Py, the third figure who dominated film production at this time was the Austrian Max Glücksmann, who was initially an employee of Casa Lepage and later acquired the firm in 1908. The works of these early years of Argentine cinema correspond to actuality films. As noted by historian José Agustín Mahieu, this stage of national cinema "naively discovers the magic of movement, the direct capture of the landscape, of the event. The camera is still a primary eye planted in front of the facts. Over any other concern (artistic or cultural) prevails the technical curiosity, the exploration of a tool that is just beginning to be known." Thus, a small-scale commercial exploitation began, with the Casa Lepage offering projectors and films to restaurants, cafes or other entertainment venues. The company dominated the country's film production for a decade, dedicating to filming curiositites and current events such as official state visits, festivities and tourist sights. In 1900, the first movie theater, the Salón Nacional, was inaugurated, and soon more venues dedicated to the projection of films were opened.
Although the topic has been little explored by Argentine film historiography, the country notably emerged as possibly the first major center for the production of pornographic films worldwide in the early 20th century. While pornographic cinema is generally considered to have originated in France alongside the birth of the medium, Buenos Aires became a hub for clandestine stag films, also known as "smokers". Around 1905, the French companies Pathé and Gaumont are reported to have shifted part of their production to Argentina in order to circumvent censorship in France. According to David Kerekes and David Slater, the red-light district of Buenos Aires at the time hosted the filming, projection and export of some of the earliest pornographic films, which were distributed to private buyers abroad. These productions were not intended for local or popular audiences but were marketed as a form of "sophisticated entertainment for the enjoyment of the wealthy classes of the Old Continent". Film historians Arthur Knight and Hollis Alpert noted that hardcore stag films were shipped by boat from Argentina to private clients, mainly in France and England, but also in Russia and the Balkans. Biographer Louis Sheaffer, in his account of Eugene O'Neill's life, mentions that the playwright traveled to Buenos Aires during this period and frequented pornographic screening rooms in the Barracas neighborhood. The Argentine film El Sartorio (sometimes referred to as El Satario) is often cited as the earliest surviving pornographic film. Believed to have been shot between 1907 and 1912 on the banks of the Río de la Plata in Quilmes or along the Paraná River near Rosario, it depicts six nude nymphs surprised by a satyr or faun who captures one and engages in sexual acts, including the 69 position. A copy of El Sartorio is preserved at the Kinsey Institute, which holds the world's largest collection of stag films.
At the end of the 1900s, the incipient Argentine cinema made significant progress with the appearance of the first narrative films, which encouraged production and distribution. These were the work of the Italian Mario Gallo, who had arrived in Buenos Aires a few years before as part of an opera company. There is confusion as to which was the first narrative film in the country: those who date its release in 1908 consider it to be El fusilamiento de Dorrego, while more recent researchers point out that this film is actually from 1910 and the first one was really La Revolución de Mayo, released in 1909. For this reason, 23 May is considered National Film Day in the country, in commemoration of the release date of the latter film. In the manner of the French film d'art trend, Gallo's films were closer to photographed theatre, almost always on historical topics.
1914–1920: Peak and decline of the silent era
The 1914 release of the film Amalia—based on the novel of the same name by José Mármol—was highly influential and marked a milestone in the development of Argentine cinema. The film's premiere on 12 December 1914 was an unprecedented event for national filmmaking, as it took place at the Teatro Colón, the most prestigious venue for the high society and aristocracy of Buenos Aires, with the presence of President Victorino de la Plaza and his ministers. Amalia was produced by Glücksmann, directed by playwright Enrique García Velloso and photographed by Py, shot in a very similar style to Gallo's films. The film was an initiative of the charity society Asociación del Divino Rostro, and its premiere was held with the "stated purpose of raising funds for the construction of a chapel and a school for girls." The characters were played by a long list of members of Buenos Aires' high society, presented in what Peña called "one of the longest title sequences in the entire history of cinema." Described as a "self-celebration show" for Buenos Aires' high society, the premiere of Amalia featured an unusually expensive ticket for a film screening and was accompanied by the Teatro Colón's orchestra. Contrary to popular belief, Amalia was not Argentina's first feature-length film, nor did it represent a stylistic breakthrough, as Nelly o la prima pobre was released the previous year, a 60-minute production sponsored by and starring members of elite charitable societies. Nevertheless, Amalia was the longest film up to that time, with an original running time of 3,000 meters, and is also the oldest surviving feature film of the country. As in 1912 and 1913, it was the only film released that year, but as Mafud pointed out, "unlike the previous ones, the trail that Amalia would leave would be much more important, both in 'artistic' prestige and in commercial possibility." By then, national production of fiction films had been stagnant for years, following a brief boom during on the occasion of the Centennial celebrations. Amalia had a pedagogical purpose centered on the ideals and tastes of the upper classes, which gave national cinema a new "moral and artistic prestige", as it was not only featured prominently in the society sections of major newspapers but also in theater reviews, initiating film criticism in Argentina.
The influence of Amalia is evident in most of the following year's film production. On the one hand, it gave a notable boost to films linked to the elite's institutions, with at least three—El tímido, , and Un romance argentino—of the seven films released in 1915 being produced by benevolent societies. Additionally, the film demonstrated the financial potential of national cinema, pulling in over 35,000 pesos from just a few high-end screenings, where the cost of admission was set high for an exclusive, affluent crowd. For example, director Julio Irigoyen, who became the "paradigm of low-budget cinema", declared that he made his first film inspired by the economic success of Amalia and the high price of its tickets, stating: "Fifteen pesos a seat when in the best cinemas downtown you paid twenty... cents to see Pearl White, Charlie Chaplin, Maciste, etcetera!". Glücksmann himself was the first to try to replicate the success of Amalia and shortly after its premiere began filming (1915), and in the course of the year built his own filming studio in the barrio of Belgrano. Unlike its predecessor, Mariano Moreno y la Revolución de Mayo premiered in commercial theaters, where it competed directly with the European productions that dominated the local screen. It also featured leading Argentine stage actors, such as members of the Podestá family and Camila Quiroga, who combined artistic prestige with wide popular appeal. With a budget of 70,000 pesos, the film was the most ambitious Argentine production to date and would remain so for several years, considering that film investments between 1915 and 1916 generally ranged from 4,000 to 50,000 pesos. Nevertheless, the film failed to achieve the expected success, and Glücksmann's plans to continue producing large-scale historical works—timed to coincide with the centennial of independence in 1916—collapsed. His subsequent films were made on much smaller budgets, and by 1916 he withdrew permanently from fiction production.