\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Launched under the motto \u201cThe rebirth of splendor,\u201d the 2025 Mar del Plata International Film Festival had set a bar pretty high for itself as directors aimed to make the most of Argentina\u2019s top film event on its 40th birthday. The balance, however, shows that they struggled to live up to the hype.<\/p>\n
Organizers admitted to stalled audience numbers and the absence of high-profile international guests, adding to their public frustration over budget limitations and complaints about of lack of support from local authorities. In its second year under new management, the results, similar to what happened last year, show that Latin America\u2019s only A-class festival is still trying to find its footing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It should be said that the festival still has the possibility of regaining the sparkle the directors claim to pursue. But just like nature abhors a vacuum, film lovers will look elsewhere for what they want until that happens. In this case, they have cast their gaze literally down the road to a grassroots event organized by young film professionals that is gaining ground.<\/p>\n
Meet Fuera de Campo (Spanish for \u201cOff frame\u201d). Created last year as a response to the subsidy slashing carried out by Argentina\u2019s film institute INCAA, it was described as \u201ca political action to defend Argentine cinema.\u201d In 2025, they showed that the alternative scene is alive and well. And the audience is responding.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every morning, dozens of young film fans waited in line for the Enrique Carreras theater\u2019s box office to open at 10 a.m. The exhibit had no online purchasing system, which meant that they had to queue the old-school way to buy the tickets for the films playing that day (this year, they featured a selection of both new and classic Argentine films).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The event was not only about celebrating cinema. Every night following the last showing at midnight, an underground club on the same block welcomed both organizers and film goers for karaoke and dancing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A storied festival on the ropes<\/p>\n
Created in 1954, Mar del Plata film festival is the region\u2019s only film festival sharing the same credentials as Cannes, Venice, and Berlin. After a glamorous early run with top-tier guests that ranged from Paul Newman to Fran\u00e7ois Truffaut and Pier Paolo Pasolini, it was halted in 1970 and revived in 1995.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The festival weathered the Menem era\u2019s flashy but thin programming and the turmoil of Argentina\u2019s 2001 crisis before stabilizing with strong lineups over the past 20 years: from major international guests like Catherine Deneuve, Jeremy Irons, Viggo Mortensen, and Juliette Binoche, to lively social events, it created a loyal audience of locals and film buffs from all over the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In their second year as co-directors, Gabriel Lerman and Jorge Stamadianos \u2014 appointed under President Javier Milei\u2019s administration in 2024 \u2014 promoted the festival with a \u201crestoration\u201d narrative that eerily echoed the Trump-era idea of returning something to its past glory, illustrated by the slogan \u201cmake America great again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the runaway inflation of the last Peronist government had indeed affected the event\u2019s budget, its artistic identity remained relatively unscathed. Whatever lost \u201csplendor\u201d the organizers were referring to was never quite clear. And while this 40th festival went on without any major setbacks, that so-called \u201crebirth\u201d \u2014 at least in terms of audience numbers, something the organizers stressed was important \u2014 was nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the same number as last year. That\u2019s not an accomplishment,\u201d said Carlos Pirovano head of the National Film Institute (INCAA) and a staunch proponent of Milei\u2019s austerity policies, on Radio Brisas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTopping that would have been the actual accomplishment,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Lerman complained about finding relatively empty theaters after all the effort that was put into getting some of the films in the program. \u201cWhenever I go into a theater screening a great film and there are few people or it\u2019s not packed, I get frustrated,\u201d he said to Radio Brisas.<\/p>\n
The Herald witnessed some of these episodes. The first Saturday night screening of Richard Linklater\u2019s Cannes entry Nouvelle Vague \u2014 a program highlight \u2014 drew a rather large audience. The landmark Auditorium Theater, which usually fills up in high-profile showings, however, never did.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another case was the premiere of Nueve Auras, a documentary about late Argentine director Fabian Bielinsky\u2019s hugely popular films Nueve reinas and El aura. Despite featuring Argentine star Ricardo Dar\u00edn (and leading actor in both movies), the showing also drew a rather small audience.<\/p>\n
Both Pirovano and Lerman also expressed frustration over the city government\u2019s weak support for street advertising, which was indeed mostly absent in Mar del Plata\u2019s downtown area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people were not aware that there is a good thing happening here, they are missing it,\u201d Lerman said. Neither the film selection itself, which lacked major titles from European festival, nor the steep rise in ticket prices compared to last year, were apparently considered potential factors for the drop in attendance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although most established local actors and film professionals had publicly denounced the current INCAA administration for its severe cuts to film funding, some high-profile artists did travel to the city to support their films. Among them were actor Diego Peretti \u2014 who co-directed Muerte de un comediante \u2014 and trap singer Cazzu, cast alongside Peretti in Risa y la cabina del viento.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yet none of the international stars organizers were working to get \u2014 from Jennifer Lopez to Harvey Keitel to Sarah Snook \u2014 actually made the trip. The new directors\u2019 decision to move the festival\u2019s dates to avoid overlapping with Thanksgiving \u2014 supposedly an obstacle to securing U.S.-based talent \u2014 didn\u2019t seem to help.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lerman\u2019s mention of the long flights to Argentina and Mar del Plata\u2019s \u201cpoor connection\u201d doesn\u2019t hold water for a festival that has flown in global stars, from directors Bong Joon Ho and James Gunn to Willem Dafoe and Greta Gerwig.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Budget issues, on the other hand, are a more realistic explanation. Mar del Plata\u2019s funding is minuscule compared to San Sebasti\u00e1n or Venice (according to Lerman himself put it, their budget currently stands at 1\/20 of the European ones). This means they cannot cover requirements made by Hollywood stars, or afford screening fees for the hottest titles from other festivals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At least for now, it doesn\u2019t appear like this can be fixed by the festival\u2019s main financier. INCAA announced earlier this year that it had reversed the institution\u2019s longtime deficit thanks to austerity measures, which included massive layoffs and drastic cuts to funding for film productions, schools, and events.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Argentine films, meanwhile, are easier (and cheaper) to obtain. In 2025 several of them premiered in top festivals around the world. But while Mar del Plata used to work as an opportunity for such films to have a local premiere, this year most of them \u2014 like Alejo Moguillansky\u2019s Pin de Fartie, or Milagros Mumenthaler\u2019s Las corrientes \u2014 chose a different venue: cue Fuera de Campo.<\/p>\n
A stronghold for Argentine cinema Previously known as Contracampo \u2014 the name of an old section of the Mar del Plata film festival dedicated to independent cinema \u2014 Fuera de Campo is a non-profit event organized by young Argentine filmmakers, producers, and critics. From November 6 to 11, it runs during the same dates as the festival (November 6 to 16.)<\/p>\n
In 2025, the exhibit hosted a handful of daily screenings of Argentine films at the Enrique Carreras Theater, just a few blocks away from the festival\u2019s headquarters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to its organizers, the exhibit filled an average 80% of its screenings, about 6000 people in total (the theater sits 300). The event is generating a strong sense of community among the mostly young audience while also attracting Mar del Plata film festival attendees, who try and squeeze Fuera de Campo screening into their schedule.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As it gains momentum while struggling with lack of funding, the event is emerging as both a hub of political resistance within the Argentine film community and a seedbed for emerging filmmakers. In addition to some of the most anticipated Argentine independent films of the year, they projected short films from young directors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The event\u2019s aura also grew due to packed late-night showings of Argentine films from the 1940s in 16mm and 35mm prints \u2014 hosted by film collector and former Mar del Plata festival director Fernando Mart\u00edn Pe\u00f1a.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fuera de Campo also hosted a series of public conversations on the state of the film community\u2019s connection with the audience, the film institute and film professionals. One of them included director and scriptwriter Mariano Llin\u00e1s, who co-wrote Oscar-nominated Argentina, 1985 and directed the 14-hour independent cult film La Flor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis marginal, independent space is much more interesting than what\u2019s on the other side,\u201d he said, insisting that the very independent nature of the event is its biggest asset, dismissing profitability as the motivator for filmmaking.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Organizers have just announced a smaller Fuera de Campo event \u2014 showing 6 films \u2014 to be held in December in Villa La Angostura, Neuqu\u00e9n province. And while the initiative remains a rather small enclave, there\u2019s something about the sheer will of its organizers and the power of having a clear political intention that could develop it into a fully grown film festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They are not without bravado. And, judging from the way they described the Mar del Plata festival in an official statement, also not without a bit of snark: \u201cWe believe that splendor is having a festival that doesn\u2019t leave out its local film industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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