Milei backtracks on cinema cuts after protests spread abroad

President Javier Milei’s plan to strip Argentina's film industry of public funding along with other cultural areas unleashed generalised protests reaching international level, prompting the government to backtrack in part, according to official sources.

Outcry from Argentine actors, producers and directors was backed by industry heavyweights like Spain’s Pedro Almodóvar, Mexico’s Alejandro González Iñárritu and Finland’s Aki Kaurismäki, who signed a communiqué in defence of "a vibrant, heterogeneous and dynamic film industry" enjoying state support since 1944.

The original version of Milei’s so-called ‘omnibus bill’ sent by the government to Congress included cuts in the funding of INCAA (Instituto Nacional De Cine Y Artes Audiovisuales) as well as the reduction or elimination of support for theatre, books, music and culture in general.

"Argentina is the country with the most Oscar nominations in the region because there is legislation sustaining and encouraging the existence of Argentine cinema," Santiago Mitre, the director of Argentina, 1985 (2022), a successful film about the military junta trials, told a parliamentary committee.

Milei himself intervened in the controversy, accusing the popular actor, producer and impresario Adrián Suar of defending "those who live off privileges."

"Speaking of culture in economic terms ... is an outlook which saddens and impoverishes," Suar had said in criticism of the government bill.

The government partially backtracked on Monday over several articles in the legislation, assuring that it will continue "protecting the funding of the sector but preserving the objective of administrative spending not becoming an excessive burden."

The government’s counterproposal to Congress insists that those organisations receiving public funding in support of cinema and music do not dedicate more than 20 percent of that funding to administrative spending and that in the case of co-productions, only the Argentine part will be financed.

Government allies and opposition deputies open to discussing Omnibus Law of public spending cuts and economic deregulation were working last week on a committee draft to be voted on by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

– TIMES/AFP