More than 300 artists signed a petition against the recently elected Argentine president, Javier Milei, for his decision to cut investments in the country’s audiovisual industry.
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With a decree, the politician ended the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA) and the National School of Experimentation and Cinematographic Production (ENERC).
Several artists around the globe also signed the petition in protest. The text includes the signatures of actors such as Gael García Bernal (‘Old’) and Diego Luna (‘Andor’), and Oscar-winning filmmakers such as Pedro Almodóvar (‘Pain and Glory’) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (‘Birdman’).
In a statement, the recently formed Cine Argentino Unidos coalition, led by associations of film professionals, said:
“Argentina has built a vibrant, heterogeneous and dynamic film industry since its inception. Since 1944, the country has had state institutions that regulate and promote cinematographic activity using the resources generated by audiovisual exploitation”.
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“Today, the film industry involves tens of thousands of quality jobs and trains professionals who collaborate in co-productions around the world […] None of this would have been possible without public policies of promoting culture and without the Cinema Law that provides specific funds for the activity.”
“Argentine cinema is a thriving industry that generates thousands of jobs, exports content and brings foreign investment to the country. The implementation of this bill will have a devastating, incalculable and irreparable effect on all culture and national sovereignty, especially for the workers who depend on cultural industries, resulting in thousands of new unemployed”, continues the text.
It is worth remembering that the measure, however, can still be overturned. To Variety, filmmaker Celina Morga, a member of the coalition, said that the group is talking to members of the Argentine Congress so that Milei’s decree against the film industry is blocked from voting.