(From left to right) Stills from Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes; Silvia Prieto; Mundo Grúa; La Libertad; and La Ciénaga)
The year 2023 marked the 25th anniversary of the theatrical release of Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes / Pizza, Birra, Faso, the milestone debut feature by Bruno Stagnaro and Adrián Caetano. This neorrealist crime drama heralded the deeply influential New Argentine Cinema, a cinematic revolution that drastically changed how the South American country portrayed itself on the big screen, fostering the careers of a vast generation of filmmakers, and fueling the Latin American cinema renaissance of the past two decades.
Set in the Buenos Aires criminal underworld and following three impoverished and incompetent teens who graduate from petty theft to armed robbery, Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes brought a raw and unfiltered portrayal of urban life to audiences by means of handheld cameras, natural lighting, and a documentary-style approach. The film became a local critical and box-office smash hit, and augured a prosperous and groundbreaking era for Argentine cinema, a trend that has not only continued, but evolved throughout the years to the present.
Rather than a cohesive artistic movement, the New Argentine Cinema was more of a seismic generational shift that deeply challenged obsolete modes of productions, as well as the outdated narratives that poorly reflected the different realities of the country in the late nineties and early aughts. This cinematic upheaval was characterized by a departure from mainstream storytelling, a preference for minimalistic narratives, and an embrace of experimental narrative techniques.
Most of the directors associated with New Argentine Cinema began their careers with limited resources and budgets. This forced them to adopt a more independent and creative approach to filmmaking. In addition to the use of handheld cameras and natural lighting, casting non-professional actors became common, contributing to the movement's raw and provocative aesthetic.
The success of Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes was followed by the international acclaim of Martín Rejtman’s Silvia Prieto (1999), Pablo Trapero’s debut feature Mundo Grúa / Crane World (1999)—winner of the top prize for Best Film at the Rotterdam Film Festival—Lucrecia Martel’s La Ciénaga (2001) and Lisandro Alonso’s La Libertad (2001). These five films, spanning diverse themes and narratives, collectively established the foundational groundwork, both aesthetically and artistically, for the filmmakers who followed suit.
The big economic crisis at the end of 2001, which collapsed the country’s banking system, rather than hurt this cinematic renaissance served as a fuel to filmmakers, who used cinema as a means of reflecting and critiquing the realities of contemporary Argentine society.
Ultimately, New Argentine Cinema served both as an inspiration and a practical model for other Latin American countries, initiating a major renaissance of cinema throughout the region, making it one of the epicenters of international cinema of the 21st century.
While the New Argentine Cinema movement may have evolved over the years, its impact on global cinema remains significant. It demonstrated the power of storytelling to reflect and critique societal issues, while also showcasing the potential of independent, innovative filmmaking to captivate audiences and provoke thoughtful discourse.
