The 100 Greatest Films of Argentine Cinema

The 100 Greatest Films of Argentine Cinema (Spanish: Las 100 mejores películas del cine argentino), also known as the Survey of Argentine cinema (Spanish: Encuesta de cine argentino), are a series of opinion polls carried out to establish a list of the greatest films of Argentine cinema of all time. The original survey was carried out by the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken in the years 1977, 1984, 1991 and 2000.[1] In 2022, a new edition was held, organized by the film magazines La vida útil, Taipei and La tierra quema, with support from INCAA, the Mar del Plata International Film Festival, the FestiFreak International Film Festival of La Plata, the Casa de la Cultura of General Roca and the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken.[2]

In the 2022 list, Leonardo Favio was the director with the greatest presence among the top 100 films, with eight titles.[1]

In the 1977 and 1984 lists, Prisioneros de la tierra (1939) by Mario Soffici reached first place, while Crónica de un niño solo (1965) by Leonardo Favio was the most voted in 2000.[3] In the 2022 survey, the first place went to La Ciénaga (2001) by Lucrecia Martel by a wide margin.[4][5] The 2022 list generated debate regarding the need for a national Cinematheque (a longtime demand of the local film community), since the difficult or non-existent access to many works from the past greatly affected the result.[1][6]

Surveys by the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken

The original surveys were carried out by the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken in Buenos Aires in the years 1977, 1984, 1991 and 2000.[1] The results of the last survey were published in the 4th issue of La mirada cautiva, the museum's magazine, which also included the top ten from the 1977 and 1984 polls.[3]

Survey of 2022

Development

In 2022, the film magazines La vida útil, Taipei and La tierra quema decided to carry out a new survey inspired by the previous ones.[1] In the editorial accompanying the list, they stated: "When members of our magazines found out about their existence, almost simultaneously and through different channels, we immediately thought it would be a good idea to carry out a new version of the survey."[1] The project was carried out with the support of INCAA, the Mar del Plata International Film Festival, the FestiFreak International Film Festival of La Plata, the Casa de la Cultura of General Roca and the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken.[2]

Various critics, journalists, researchers, historians, programmers, collectors, directors, screenwriters, producers, actors, cinematographers, editors and sound engineers, among other film-related jobs, participated in the 2022 survey.[1] More than 1,000 invitations were sent, of which 546 responses were obtained, including 812 different titles; each participant chose their 10 favorite Argentine films, of any year and length, with all of them having the same value at the time of counting.[1] Due to the coincidences in the number of votes, 62 ranking positions were formed,[1] and the "Top 100" actually consists of 103 films divided into 52 positions.[4]

The results of the Encuesta de cine argentino 2022 (English: "2022 Survey of Argentine cinema") were presented at the 37th Mar del Plata International Film Festival on 11 November 2022.[7][8] During the presentation of the list, Paula Félix-Didier, director of the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken, declared that the "survey has the specific and explicit idea of developing a canon of Argentine cinema and serves to discuss, open doors and draw attention about some things."[7] The first place went to La Ciénaga (2001) by Lucrecia Martel by a wide margin.[4]

Results

Prisioneros de la tierra (1939) by Mario Soffici was chosen as the best Argentine film of all time in the 1977 and 1984 polls.

The top 10 positions in the 1977 and 1984 polls, as well as the top 100 in the 2000 poll, were published in 4th issue of La mirada cautiva, the magazine of the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken.[3]

Top 10 of 1977

Pos.TitleDirectorYear
1Prisioneros de la tierraMario Soffici1939
2La casa del ángelLeopoldo Torre Nilsson1957
3La guerra gauchaLucas Demare1942
4Así es la vidaFrancisco Mugica1939
5La vuelta al nidoLeopoldo Torres Ríos1938
6Las aguas bajan turbiasHugo del Carril1952
7El jefeFernando Ayala1958
8La dama duendeLuis Saslavsky1945
9MalamboAlberto de Zavalía1942
10Fuera de la leyManuel Romero1937

Top 10 of 1984

Pos.TitleDirectorYear
1Prisioneros de la tierraMario Soffici1939
2La Patagonia rebeldeHéctor Olivera1974
3La guerra gauchaLucas Demare1942
4Las aguas bajan turbiasHugo del Carril1952
5Tiempo de revanchaAdolfo Aristarain1981
6La casa del ángelLeopoldo Torre Nilsson1957
7Los islerosLucas Demare1951
8La treguaSergio Renán1974
9Este es el romance del Aniceto y la Francisca, de cómo quedó trunco, comenzó la tristeza y unas pocas cosas más...Leonardo Favio1967
10El jefeFernando Ayala1958

Top 100 of 2000

Crónica de un niño solo (1965) by Leonardo Favio was chosen as the best Argentine film of all time in the 2000 survey.

Due to the coincidences in the number of votes, the list of the 100 greatest films actually consists of 101 films divided into 43 positions.[3]

Pos.TitleDirectorYearVotes
1Crónica de un niño soloLeonardo Favio1965
76
2CamilaMaría Luisa Bemberg1984
75
3Las aguas bajan turbiasHugo del Carril1952
72
La Patagonia rebeldeHéctor Olivera1974
4Rosaura a las diezMario Soffici1958
68
5Este es el romance del Aniceto y la Francisca, de cómo quedó trunco, comenzó la tristeza y unas pocas cosas más...Leonardo Favio1967
67
6Prisioneros de la tierraMario Soffici1939
66
La treguaSergio Renán1974
7La guerra gauchaLucas Demare1942
65
8La historia oficialLuis Puenzo1985
63
9Juan MoreiraLeonardo Favio1973
62
Mundo grúaPablo Trapero1999
Tiempo de revanchaAdolfo Aristarain1981
10La casa del ángelLeopoldo Torre Nilsson1957
61
Apenas un delincuenteHugo Fregonese1949
Hombre mirando al sudesteEliseo Subiela1986
Pizza, birra, fasoBruno Stagnaro e Israel Adrián Caetano1998

Top 100 of 2022

In the 2022 list, La Ciénaga (2001) by Lucrecia Martel (pictured) was the most voted film by a wide margin, and all her films appear in the Top 100.[5]

Due to the coincidences in the number of votes, the "Top 100" of the Encuesta de cine argentino 2022 actually consists of 103 films divided into 52 positions.[1][4] The total list has 812 titles and 62 ranking positions, belonging to the latter all the titles that had only one vote.[1]

Pos.TitleDirectorYearVotes
1La CiénagaLucrecia Martel2001
224
2InvasiónHugo Santiago Muchnik1969
136
3Tiempo de revanchaAdolfo Aristarain1981
124
4El dependienteLeonardo Favio1969
108
5Crónica de un niño soloLeonardo Favio1965
100
6La hora de los hornosFernando "Pino" Solanas and Octavio Getino1968
99
7Juan, como si nada hubiera sucedidoCarlos Echeverría1987
96
8Pizza, birra, fasoBruno Stagnaro and Israel Adrián Caetano1998
88
9Silvia PrietoMartín Rejtman1999
86
10Nueve reinasFabián Bielinsky2000
80

See also

References