Week of novelties (not always bad) for national cinema

Moved week for Argentine cinema: The INCAA controller is questioned by its advisory council, the Film Academy and the Government of Córdoba announce good novelties for the audiovisual industry, and Comodoro Py announces bad novelties for former officials and producers.

These days it transcended a fairly special note that the INCAA Advisory Council, formed by interior culture representatives and recognized members of the industry, raised the current president of the entity, licensed Carlos Pirovano. It is written after the only and brief meeting that said official had with the Council at the end of May, and contains phrases such as “We want to leave the breach of the Cinema Law in the essential aspects that violate the plural representation”, “the delay in the confirmation and call of this advisory council for more than 14 months and the ignorance of the decisions taken in the Federal Assembly”, “in this period numerous measures that paralyzed the production were unilaterally implemented, without observing perspectives of reactivation,” Review of resolutions that seriously affected the direct promotion mechanisms to the activity ”.

The note adds, with greater firmness, “it is for all this that we demand that the correct execution of the Development Fund and the specific assignments be fulfilled”, “we ratify the will to work constructively, but we warn that this will only be possible if the competences are recognized and allowed the co -government organs to carry out the tasks that the law establishes.” There is still no news of a second meeting.

The Academy

In another order, the Argentine Cinema Academy raised a public note, in this case warning in very correct terms “the dissemination of public messages by officials of the national government and the president of the nation itself, which discredit or ridicule artists and referents of culture, being harassed by expressing their ideas. These episodes, amplified in official networks and statements, generate an adverse climate for free thinking artistic ”. The note, signed by the Board of Directors, warns of the deterioration of freedom of expression, violated by lack of respect, the consequent growth of self -censorship, and the way in which these behaviors even affect the image of the country.

The other face of this situation occurred on Wednesday at the Casa de Córdoba. There, in the presence of Mirtha Legrandthe governor Martín Llaryora and the vice Myriam PrunottoAcademy drivers Hernán Findling and Sabrina Farji They announced that this year the South Awards for the best of cinema and the 2024 series will be delivered at the San Martin Libertador Theater in the Mediterranean capital. The event will occur on July 23, will be transmitted by TNT and the Max platform, will imply a greater logistics than usual (it is enough to think about the number of figures that have to mobilize) and, in particular, it will serve as a stained glass window of the growing Cordoba audiovisual industry.

The focus

There is an initiative there, Córdoba Audiovisual District, implemented through the Audiovisual Pole of the Córdoba Culture agency that leads Raúl Sandica and includes economic incentives and financing for $ 5 billion for the sector, the result of a joint work with the private sector, producers and unions. A line of specific bank loans and a cash rebate have been arranged that proposes up to 40% reimbursement for the expenses made in film, television, animation, video games and advertising projects.

The intention is to affirm local production and attract national and even international productions (there was already, in this regard, a Mexican film that seems made in the DF already less cost). All this could also generate indirect employment, foster tourism and strengthen regional identity.

On the occasion, the governor highlighted the federalist decision of the Academy, and the impulse of his management to the audiovisual sector. “Culture is an industry that generates work and governing is creating work. Betting on this industry is an act of intelligence, this is an industry that allows Córdoba to position yourself thanks to others ‘do not see it'”ironized.

Mirtha He put the gold brooch: “It is a wonderful province, because they always stand out in the industry, in art, in everything. The Cordoba must be proud to have been born in that province,” he said, recalling in passing the work that filmed at age 15 in the Sierras de Punilla, “The Journey”, where he composed a sick girl of tuberculosis. It is a dramatic comedy, bittersweet, but she gave her an optimistic ending: “In Córdoba you cures!”

The trial

This week also began in Comodoro Py a trial for alleged embezzlement (some say simple accounting carelessness) against Jorge Álvarez and Liliana Mazure, who between 2005 and 2013 presided over the INCAA financing dozens of films, promotions and restorations, and producers Fernando Sokolowicz, Pablo Luís Rovito and Alejandro Juan Tossenberger as necessary participants. The complaint has long data and is now driven by the current conduction of the INCAA.