From November 7 to 15, 2009 it will take place the 24th edition of Mar del Plata International Film Festival, which like its counterparts of San Sebastián, Berlín, Cannes and Venice, among a few others, has been labeled by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations, FIAPF, as “A” category, being the only festival in Latin America with this rate. Its origin took place in 1954, when the Information Sub-Secretariat of the National Presidency organized the first Cinematographic Exhibition of Cinema in Mar del Plata city.

There, the most important and recent international productions of that time were exhibited, among them: Pane, amore e fantasia, by Vittorio de Sica (Italy); La ilusión viaja en tranvía, by Luís Buñuel (Mexico); The Glenn Miller Story, by Anthony Mann (USA); Sommarlek, by Ingmar Bergman (Sweden) and “Fröken Julie”, by Alf Sjöberg (Sweden).

The World cinematography was represented by the most outstanding figures. From Hollywood attended Errol Flynn, Mary Pickford, Joan Fontaine, Claire Trevor, Edward G. Robinson, Fred MacMurray, Ann Miller, Walter Pidgeon and Jeannette McDonald; from France came Viviane Romance and Jeanne Moreau; from Italy, Gina Lollobrigida, Isa Miranda, Lucía Bosé and Alberto Sordi; from Britain,Trevor Howard; from Spain, Fernando Fernán Gómez, Aurora Bautista and Ana Mariscal. Besides, as special guests Lil Dagover, actress of “Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari”, by Robert Wiene came from Germany, and Norman McLaren, from Canada.

This event awoke a growing interest within the intellectual and cinematographic sphere, as it created an Argentinean film festival where it could be made contact not only with the acclaimed cinematographies, but also with the cinematographic vanguards from all over the world, so answering to the highest cultural level and to the one demanded by our audience.

This wish became real in 1959, when the Argentinean Cinematographic Reporters Association managed to get the “A” category for Mar del Plata International Film Festival from the FIAPF. From then on, ten editions were held until 1979. One of them, the one of 1964, in the city of Buenos Aires and then, in 1967 and 1969, it took turns with Rio de Janeiro Festival.

These festivals were the most important cinematographic-cultural events of the time. European cinematographies were represented, among others, by the French Nouvelle Vague, the young Polish cinema, the most outstanding Czeck cinema, the best Italian realism and Ingmar Bergman and Sweden cinematography bursting in, apart from the excellence of the British cinema. From the United States arrived films which, due to their high thematic, technical and performing level, were awarded in many occasions.

Apart from the Official Competition, many films were exhibited out of competition and several informative exhibitions were held as well; but one of the main attractions among journalists and film makers was the rich interchange of the new cinematographic tendencies, which took place within the meetings with theoreticians from all over the world.

Uncountable international personalities attended the festival. In a brief summary we can mention Paul Newman (who was awarded Best Actor in 1962), Vittorio Gassman, Alberto Sordi, Jean Paul Belmondo, Anthony Perkins, Ugo Tognazzi, Maria Callas, Maria Schell, Marie Laforet, Harriet Andersson, George Hamilton, Tom Courtenay, Mario Moreno (Cantinflas), François Truffaut, Tony Richardson, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Gilo Pontecorvo, Andrzej Wajda, Edouard Molinaro, Pierre Kast, Karel Reisz, Jacques Tati, Curt Jürgens, Cesare Zavattini, Josef von Sternberg, Alfred Bauer, Abel Gance, Vincent Minelli, Lee Strassberg, Andrzej Munk, James Mason, Maximilian Schell, Catherine Spaak, Tomas Milian, Ettore Scola, John Gavin, and Jerzy Passendorfer, among others.

After 26 years, when the festival did not take place due to many reasons, the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts, INCAA, took the initiative to negotiate before the FIAPF, the re-admission of Argentina to the international cinema festivals circuits regulated by this international organization. Thus, it started the second stage of Mar del Plata International Film Festivals in 1996, which were held uninterruptedly from then on, with the sole delay of the date changing between November 1999 and March 2001, and the 23rd edition, which returned to November’s date.

In this way, Mar del Plata International Film Festival, become again an artistic and cultural event attended by filmmakers, actors, producers, investors, scriptwriters, journalists and members of other technical areas of the cinema from all over the world, as well as a can’t-miss event for all those who are part of the Argentinean cinematography, of all tendencies and generations. With the aim of acquiring new knowledges, students of the numerous careers related to cinema from all over the country, take part of the festival as well, living the experience of a unique cinematographic celebration.The Film Festival is the annual meeting between the audience and the traditional and avant-guard cinematographies that are screened in the many side-bar sections.

Since 1996 up to the last edition in 2008, many foreign personalities have attend the festival, among them, Gina Lollobrigida, who was payed tribute for being the most popular celebrity to attend the first festival in 1954, Jacqueline Bisset, Elsa Martinelli, Raquel Welch, Renee Zellweger, Francisco Rabal, Amparo Soler Leal, Lina Wertmüller, Percy Adlon, Arturo Ripstein, Pilar Miro, Dino Risi, Alfonso Arau, Antonio Ferrandiz, Abbas Kiarostami, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Catherine Deneuve, Geraldine Chaplin, Sonia Braga, Emily Watson, Julie Delpy, Nikita Mijalkov, Sally Potter, Alex de la Iglesia, Liv Ullman, Jeremy Irons, Alan Rickman, Philip Noyce, Istvan Szabo, Gerard Depardieu, Volker Schlöndorff, María de Medeiros, Helen Mirren, Vittorio Taviani, Mario Monicelli, Hanna Schygula, Kathleen Turner, Héctor Babenco, Ken Russell, Bob Rafelson, Norman Jewison, Susan Seidelman, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Krzystof Zanussi, Michael Winterbotton, Abel Ferrara and Juliette Binoche.

Photos courtesy of Gabriela David