With fourteen Goya Awards for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film under its belt, Argentina knows a thing or two about cinema. Movie production throughout the 20th century meant that Argentina soon became one of the major film industries in the Spanish-speaking world and it has even picked up a couple of Oscars along the way too.
But if the closest you have ever got to the country’s cinematic credentials is Evita, then you should probably check out our top five Argentine movies.
- “La Historia Oficial” (The Official Story) – 1985, 18+
Happily-married Alicia and her husband Roberto have an adopted daughter named Gaby. Alicia is blissfully ignorant about what happened in the military coup until one of her history students asks her if she only believes what the history books say. She embarks on deeply personal mission, one which holds answers that she may not truly want to know. Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language Film. - “Valentín” – 2002, 13+
A precocious young boy, raised by his grandmother in 1969-era Argentina, forms unlikely friendships in his quest to achieve his two dreams: to become an astronaut and to have a “real” family. - “Cama Adentro” (Live-in Maid) – 2004
A once-wealthy Buenos Aires socialite who has fallen on hard times finds the roles between herself and her longtime live-in maid suddenly reversed in director Jorge Gaggero’s class-conscious drama. Sundance Film Festival Winner Grand Jury Prize. - “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” (The Secret in Their Eyes) – 2010, 18+
The dark, time-jumping tale of a retired court employee who decides to revisit the past and write a novel based on one of his most haunting cases of rape, murder, corruption and exile from Argentina’s turbulent 1970s. Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language Film. - “Metegol” (Underdogs) – 2013.
This computer-animated feature is a cooperative production between Argentina and Spain, directed by Juan José Campanella, the Oscar-winning director of “El secreto de sus ojos” (see above). A departure from the dark or serious nature of his other films, Metegol is a whimsical love story where a underdog protagonist saves the town from an evil ‘crack’ football player- who happens to look a lot like Leo Messi’s rival Cristiano Ronaldo. As the film has been dubbed in Argentine Spanish, mainland Castellano, generic Spanish, and English, make sure you watch the Argentine version for the full Argentine experience.