“University of the workers and whoever doesn’t like it, is screwed, is screwed!” Standing, with their arms raised, (almost) everyone present at the Usina del Arte sang with anger and a sense of belonging that song that is a constitutive part of Argentine culture. It was not a demonstration in favor of public education but rather the first ceremony for the Martín Fierro Film and Series Awards, but the audiovisual artistic community of Argentina took advantage of the evening to make a strong defense of public education, culture, retirees, national industry and the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA). A night marked by forceful political speeches, and also by the silences and gestures of those who did not agree with the general climate.
It was not an awards ceremony like any other. The usual frivolity, and the occasion and protocol speeches, this time were conspicuous by their absence. The new award organized by the Association of Television and Radio Journalists of Argentina (APTRA) was a meeting of resistance, a demonstration of strength, convictions, solidarity, empathy and talent brought together with the excuse of an awards ceremony. And the need to embrace each other and shout loudly that the Argentine audiovisual industry is not going to lower its arms prevailed, despite the policy of discredit and destruction to which Javier Milei’s government subjected it.
Mirtha Legrand asked that Incaa not be closed.
Designated by the national government as “public enemy number 1”, the Argentine artistic community did not remain silent on Monday night. The song in defense of the public university – perhaps the most iconic moment of the ceremony – came after the screenwriters of the night’s big winner, the film Puan, María Alché and Benjamín Naishtat, won the Martín Fierro for best screenplay. . One of those who received the award was the dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UBA, Ricardo Manetti. “Our universities are in a critical situation due to the budgetary adjustment and defunding that this Government is carrying out,” he said, denouncing the “attacks” on teachers and students. “Those who are responsible for public policies are wanting to make the public university disappear,” he said, and demanded “not to lose university autonomy.”
Another of the strongest moments of the night was when Norman Briski took the stage to receive his statuette in tribute to his career. True to his style, the actor referred to Argentine and cinematographic reality. “Fiction is an x-ray of reality. They are forcing us to fiction. Fiction is in the (Casa) Rosada,” he stressed. “I salute the heroes of cinema, of our cinema, because it is always thought that we are an industry, but we are heroes of this beautiful work. Let’s talk then about Pino Solanas, Cantinflas, Hugo del Carril, Eva Perón. I salute all struggles, not this one, all of them. My Norma Pla, my Nora Cortiñas, and I salute the missing food and my advice is like this: investments, cinema needs investments. Investments will come from rebellion or we will be nothing. “To film, to film, to film until we bury ourselves in the sea.” Furthermore, Briski took a position on the conflict between Israel and Palestine: “Gaza will never be defeated. I don’t care if they applaud me a lot or a little, but I feel it here, in my blood, in my ancestors. “The defense of a people that is being murdered, Gaza.”
They were not the only voices that defended the Argentine film industry. Mirtha Legrand herself, also honored, was clear about this. “Please, don’t close INCAA!” was the first thing the diva said. “In my house Argentine cinema was and is loved, so we have to continue making films. If there are people who suddenly received a loan and did not return the corresponding money, well, that one is left out. We don’t give anything more to those people. But the INCAA cannot be closed because Argentine cinema is the most important Spanish-speaking cinema. So we Argentines have to maintain it. Let’s make strength. This will continue to make wonderful films, with awards,” he remarked.
Ricardo Manetti, dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UBA.
As the winners ascended, the words in defense of public education and Argentine culture were repeated with courage and sensitivity. “Don’t tell us how we have to make films. We know how to make movies. Don’t let them tell us how many viewers we have to get to be good. It is not something we always think about,” said the great Graciela Borges. “Nobody wants to make a bad movie, guys. That’s what those who don’t support us in the movies don’t understand. We fight a lot for cinema. Claw, heart and nerve, as they say in football. And let’s not lower our arms. If not, we will not be able to continue doing this, because the world is full of images of Argentine cinema. And sometimes it seems like they forget that,” remarked the actress who celebrated sharing the night with the artistic “tribe,” a concept that several of the winners took up during the evening.
Among the speeches that supported the coinciding words and ideas that award-winning producers, directors, costume designers, musicians and actors poured onto the stage, there were also silences that were as political as those that explicitly claimed the cultural and economic relevance of national cinema. Among them, the omission of any social or artistic issue by Susana Giménez, also honored, and Guillermo Francella, who won the Martín Fierro de Oro for The Manager but avoided commenting on the current situation in the country and the audiovisual industry, stood out. in particular. “I am not very used to having those very rhetorical speeches or sententious phrases or grandiose words, but if there is a word that expresses my state of mind it is ‘thank you’,” he stated, dedicating the award to the public.
The one who did not remain silent was Luis Brandoni, who upon receiving a well-deserved award for his career as an actor, tacitly vindicated the national government. “I still have hope in the country because people don’t want more thieves everywhere,” he said. Mercedes Morán, who arrived at the Art Plant along with other actors with an Argentine flag with the legend “Argentine cinema, identity and memory.” , also said his own. “We are going to resist, with creativity, with love and with freedom, that word that they want to steal from us, because you only get freedom with education,” he stated with a strong defense of public education and of. the Argentine audiovisual industry, the artistic community expressed themselves with total freedom about a current situation that challenges them as citizens but also as cultural workers. “Only people who think individually – Natalia Oreiro reflected – can believe that there is no way out. collective.”
