\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t The Argentine film community is in an uproar over the firing of Buenos Aires Film Museum director Paula F\u00e9lix-Didier, who confirmed on Friday she will step down from office.<\/p>\n
The film historian posted a message on social media saying she will no longer be the museum\u2019s director but will \u201cremain a part of the staff that holds this institution.\u201d<\/p>\n
F\u00e9lix-Didier thanked Buenos Aires Culture Minister Gabriela Ricardes \u201cfor the dialogue during this process.\u201d The reasons for the decision were not made public.<\/p>\n
Queridos amigos del Museo del Cine: a fin de mes dejar\u00e9 mi cargo como directora, aunque sigo en el equipo que sostiene este espacio. Gracias a la ministra Gabriela Ricardes por el di\u00e1logo en este proceso, y a esta comunidad por su cari\u00f1o de siempre.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Loca Margarita (@pfdidier) June 19, 2026 A film historian and archivist with an MA from New York University, F\u00e9lix-Didier had presided over the Buenos Aires Pablo Ducr\u00f3s Hicken Film Museum since 2009. She played a key role in the famous discovery of the most complete print of Metropolis, the 1927 sci-fi masterpiece by German director Fritz Lang, which was found in Buenos Aires in 2008.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2025, F\u00e9lix-Didier received the prestigious Jean Mity Award at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, the world\u2019s most renowned silent film festival in Pordenone, Italy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unanimous support Rumors of the dismissal began circulating on Argentine social media this week, with filmmakers, programmers, archivists, and festival directors all rallying behind F\u00e9lix-Didier and criticizing Ricardes\u2019 decision.<\/p>\n
The news is an unusual development. In May, Ricardes had praised the museum\u2019s work while announcing France\u2019s Lumi\u00e8re Festival of silent film would take place in Buenos Aires next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Pablo Ducr\u00f3s Hicken Film Museum has been quietly carrying out this task for decades: recovering, restoring, and saving works that would otherwise have been lost forever. The Lumi\u00e8re Festival in Buenos Aires is also international recognition of this extraordinary work,\u201d she posted at the time.<\/p>\n
Former Buenos Aires City and national government culture minister Pablo Avelluto called it a \u201cmistake, a clumsy move, or even worse, a symptom of [City Mayor] Jorge Macri\u2019s disinterest in porte\u00f1os culture.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the Friends of the Buenos Aires Film Museum Association issued a statement expressing their \u201cdeep concern\u201d over the decision to remove F\u00e9lix-Didier from office.<\/p>\n
The Association also worried about \u201cthe future of preservation policies for our audiovisual heritage\u201d and stressed F\u00e9lix-Didier\u2019s \u201cdedication, management capacity, and commitment to audiovisual preservation that have been recognized both in Argentina and abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe broad support she has received in recent days from professionals, researchers, filmmakers, programmers, archivists, and culture workers reflects an exceptional career, built over decades of sustained work in favor of film heritage,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n
At the time of their posting, the removal had not yet been confirmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The six former directors of Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival (BAFICI) also expressed their support for F\u00e9lix-Dider on X and Instagram.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be a very bad sign if the Buenos Aires City culture ministry uses a ridiculous pretense to fire Paula F\u00e9lix-Didier, film museum director and the first defender of our film heritage,\u201d posted filmmaker and first BAFICI director Andr\u00e9s DiTella.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Film archivist and historian Fernando Mart\u00edn Pe\u00f1a, the other discoverer of the Metropolis print and a former director of the Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata film festivals, praised F\u00e9lix-Didier, saying that \u201cabsolutely no one who can match her experience and training in order to replace her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city\u2019s cultural administration supposedly wants to distance itself from the libertarian catastrophe that runs the nation. They\u2019re supposed to care about culture. This is their chance to prove it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The news is also beginning to gain international attention. Film critic Dave Kerh, a curator in the Department of Film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, warned of \u201cbad news from Buenos Aires.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks as if the widely respected director of the Museo Del Cinema, Paula Felix-Didier, has been removed by the city government after 17 years on the job,\u201d he posted online.<\/p>\n
Across the R\u00edo de la Plata, the prestigious Uruguayan Cinematheque also stated their support for F\u00e9lix-Didier on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no doubt that history books on Latin American cinema will soon include a chapter explaining how Argentine cinema survived public policies intent on destroying it, thanks to the work of people like Paula F\u00e9lix-Didier, who dedicated superhuman effort and ingenuity to preserving and promoting it at the helm of the Buenos Aires Film Museum,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Argentine film community is in an uproar over the firing of Buenos Aires Film Museum director Paula F\u00e9lix-Didier, who confirmed on Friday she will step down from office. The film historian posted a message on social media saying she will no longer be the museum\u2019s director but will \u201cremain a part of the staff […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":79080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,316,1366,11200,12828,20294],"tags":[133,4897,1364,11196,12825,20293],"class_list":["post-79079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-culture-ideas","category-film","category-film-series","category-film-museum","category-gabriela-ricardes","category-paula-felix-didier","tag-culture-ideas","tag-film","tag-film-series","tag-film-museum","tag-gabriela-ricardes","tag-paula-felix-didier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}