The Academy Award-winning director Luis Puenzo has been named director of Argentina’s Film Institute (Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales, INCAA), by the newly-sworn government of Alberto Fernández, which took office on Tuesday, December 10.
Puenzo, born in Buenos Aires in 1946, became the first Latin American filmmaker to win the Oscar for best foreign language film in 1986 with The Official Story / La historia oficial. He’s directed six feature film in total between the U.S. and Argentina including Old Gringo in 1989 and The Whore and the Whale in 2004. Puenzo replaces Ralph Haiek, who had a controversial tenure as head of the INCAA under the neoliberal presidency of Mauricio Macri, and he will be joined by producer Nicolás Batlle as vice-president of Argentina’s national film institute.
Additionally, the government of Fernández appointed filmmaker Tristán Bauer (Blessed by Fire) as the new Minister of Culture.
