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After a few weeks of silence, there is talk again about the present and future of the National Institute of Film and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA). The official account that the organization has on the social network X (formerly Twitter) was activated on the afternoon of Wednesday 26 to give details of a savings of 3,410 million pesos that the current administration applied this year in its expenses during the last six months. And in the last few hours, a new post reminds that until July 31, registration is open for those who want to register films in the next Mar del Plata Film Festival.
“39th International Film Festival in Mar del Plata, financed with private money,” reads a text printed in capital letters, as the header of this last post. And from Incaa they promise that there will be several more announcements along these same lines in the near future. The announcement known in the last hours ratifies the holding of the exhibition between November 21 and December 1, co-produced by Incaa and the Municipality of General PueyrredónThe first will be in charge of all the artistic content and the municipality of the organization and logistics, with support from private sponsors, not yet confirmed.
The tenor of these first two communications represents, for some observers, a ratification of a certain trend outlined by some official areas in the early days of Javier Milei’s government: show cinema as an example of how the previous government spent too much to obtain the unrestricted support of some cultural sectors with proven influence on public opinion.
Many still remember that phrase included in an official statement from the Ministry of Human Capitalunder whose orbit the Incaa operates within the organizational chart of the public administration: “The years in which film festivals were financed with the hunger of thousands of children are over.” The reduction in expenses, the savings policies and the transfer to the private sector of certain competences until now exclusive to the State would be, from this perspective, the most visible tools of this campaign.
On the other hand, several sectors of the local film industry have been demonstrating against the measures applied by the current administration in different ways. The entities grouped under the name of United Argentine Cinema (a slogan that leads the claims and protests against the official management made visible in different international festivals) are among those They announce for this Friday, at 6 pm, the so-called “national screening in defense of Argentine cinema” in different areas of the country with special events and screenings.
Near the office occupied by the current president of Incaa, Carlos Pirovano, this tension is recognized, headed by the entities that represent the documentary filmmakers and the internal union commission of the Association of State Workers (ATE). They admit that there is the most frontal opposition to the current management, which until mid-July is carrying out a three-month internal reorganization plan that was designed to clean up the organization’s accounts.
At that time, an official statement stated that the Government found Incaa “in an economically delicate situation, with a deficit of 4 million dollars, part financed by the National Treasury and the other already postponed to be paid by the current administration.” The current adjustment plan, sources from the organization point out, aims above all to correct these distortions and clean up the accounts.
“In three months we have reduced the number of employees by half,” the sources added.. There was a retirement plan to which 254 employees took part, 32 hierarchical positions were reduced in the new organizational chart, appointments were canceled and contracts for the temporary plant were not renewed. “Our goal for 2025 is to have a total of around 330 employees, an ideal number similar to that of the equivalent of Incaa in Spain, which is working very well,” the sources added.
The new development plan that is today for the President’s signature and that the current Incaa management hopes to have operational soon Its goals include using no more than 20 percent of the specific funds that the agency receives under the Film Law. (the 10% tax on the sale of each movie ticket and the price to the public of “recorded videograms” such as DVD, plus 25% of the collection of the National Communications Agency) in its current and structural expenses (administration, personnel , infrastructure).
“The priority is to have a competitive local industry with a good level of production in quantity and quality.”. We want to give signals to the industry so that it has incentives and recovers the viewer who followed Argentine cinema and in recent years stopped watching it,” they point out to THE NATION Incaa sources supported by specific box office data. In 2023, only 20 of the more than 300 Argentine films released in theaters exceeded 10,000 spectators. Of the three million tickets that national productions sold last year, 42% were concentrated only in two documentary feature films (I choose to believe and Guys, the people’s movie) dedicated to evoking the Argentine triumph in the World Cup in Qatar.
The sources consulted by THE NATION They also dismissed the questions raised regarding the official announcement of savings of almost 250 million pesos made this year by the Incaa by suspending the rental of buildings “that will no longer be used” and the suspension of maintenance of “two redundant and unused locations.” One of these buildings stored historical film material of inestimable value.
The organization confirmed to this newspaper that this material was transferred to the property that Incaa has in the Buenos Aires town of Ensenada to maintain its preservation. And that in that headquarters, together with the offices of the Lima 319 building and the headquarters of the National School of Experimentation and Filmmaking (Enerc), all the organization’s activity will be concentrated from now on.
The areas that operated in rented offices on Avenida de Mayo and Calle Moreno, opposite Enerc, were deactivated. And the current administration has the medium-term goal of conditioning the basement of that school to be used in the future to house the entire historical film archive that it has in its hands.
There would be other announcements in the coming days and weeks, according to what he learned. THE NATION. For example, a letter of intent would be made official through which the entire operation of Cine.ar (which includes a pay TV channel and a free streaming platform) streaming with a vast catalog of nationally produced titles) will move into the orbit of Radio and Television Argentina (RTA).
It was also confirmed, as announced at the last Cannes Film Festival, that Ventana Sur (the most important market for buying and selling films in Latin America, created by Incaa and the Marché du Film de Cannes) will move, at least for this year, to Uruguay (Montevideo or Punta del Este), with the possibility of establishing an annual rotation of the venues in different cities of the Southern Cone. “It could return one year to Argentina, another to Uruguay, then continue in Paraguay, and thus establish the functioning of the market in an international scenario that relies on co-productions within this region. This way, everyone wins, because each country expands its market and its country brand in the best context,” the sources added.
And for later, as Pirovano outlined at the time in a meeting with the leadership of the Argentine Chamber of the Film Industry, Some type of initiative is being considered to guarantee the operation of the Gaumont complex, the traditional epicenter of national cinema exhibition activity. In principle through the creation of a Association of Friends of the space located in front of the Plaza Congreso, with the idea that figures and personalities of local cinema can contribute resources of different types, including the figure of an artistic programming model similar to that of the Fundación Cinemateca Argentina in the Sala Lugones of the San Martin Theatre.
“In three months we have reduced the percentage of structural and personnel expenses from 65 to 38 in order to restore budgetary balance and allocate at least 50 percent of the funds to development and production, which is what the law requires,” the sources said. As anticipated last April THE NATIONthe INCAA is preparing a new regulatory plan for the policy of promoting cinematographic activity in Argentina based on two main avenues. On the one hand, support for large productions, conceived for box office and to recover the public that Argentine cinema has lost in recent years. On the other, a sort of “artistic avenue” aimed at stimulating new talents.
In the first case, the Incaa will support as if it were a strategic partner the most ambitious projects, as a direct co-producer and through a risk investment. To the extent that the film is successful, private producers will be able to return to their state partner the support that the latter gave to the production. In this way, Incaa becomes a beneficiary as a “passive investor” while at the same time strengthening the country’s brand locally and internationally. “More loans and fewer subsidies,” says INCAA.
The key date is July 10. Until that date, the 90-day suspension of the presentation of all types of film projects in the so-called “continuous window” of the Incaa applies. while the budget adjustment and balance plan is being carried out, as well as an internal reorganization that significantly reduced the organizational chart in two major areas: Public Policies (in charge of all promotion and strategic definitions) and Administration. From that moment on, daily activity would resume almost fully after a virtual three-month standstill, although the Incaa pointed out that THE NATION that the organization “was never closed.”
An objective expressed by the current management and that many film entities tacitly recognize is the need to simplify the complex bureaucratic structure of the organization. On the official INCAA website, the information on active audiovisual projects, updated to June 24, includes a total of 1,215 records, many of which date back to the last decade. It is indicated that in 665 of these projects, filming never began.
