Early Cinema
The first Uruguayan film was made by director Félix Oliver. After buying a cinematograph from the Lumière brothers, he made the short film Carrera de bicicletas en el velódromo de Arroyo Seco at the very beginning of the twentieth century. Considered the first film in South America, it is now preserved in the Uruguayan Film Archive. But Argentina soon outstripped local production, and the majority of films screened in the country came from the neighboring country's film industry. It wasn't until 1923 that the first national feature film was released, by doctor-turned-filmmaker Juan Antonio Borges. Almas de la Costa, shot mostly on location on the coast of Montevideo, tells the story of two lovers who are tragically separated by illness. Considered lost, the film has since been found and restored, and excerpts can now be viewed online, as it celebrates its centenary in 2023.
After a period of drought in the 1930s and early 1940s, new investments from Argentina and Uruguay revived the local film industry. Argentinian filmmaker Julio Saraceni, who had cut his teeth in short films, found success in Uruguay with films such as Alma de bohemio (1949). Over the course of his career, he would make over sixty feature films between the two countries, as well as numerous collaborations with artists and stars on both sides of the border. Parallel to these fictions, Uruguayan filmmakers captured different realities through documentaries, which were often simpler and less costly to produce. Taking up the founding myth of Uruguay, filmmaker Miguel Ángel Mellino made El desembarco de los 33 orientales in 1952, with government support. In the 1960s, it was Mario Handler's turn to take up the documentary torch, with pamphlets such as Carlos, cine-retrato de un "caminante" en Montevideo (1965) and Elecciones with Ugo Ulive (1967). Forced into exile in 1972, he left for Venezuela, where he continued his career. A founding member of the Cinemateca del Tercer Mundo, a group of committed South American filmmakers, he returned to Uruguay in the late 1990s, where he became professor of cinema at the University of the Republic in Montevideo.
Handler's exile cut short the momentum of freedom that was sweeping Uruguayan cinema at the time. In the years that followed, filmmakers confined themselves to less political subjects, at least until the end of the dictatorial years. It wasn't until the early 2000s that a new wind blew over Uruguayan cinema. In 2003, Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll won the FIPRESCI prize and the Un Certain Regard prize at the Cannes Film Festival with Whisky, a black comedy with an atypical trio. A few years earlier, with 25 Watts, the same filmmaking duo rallied crowds around the story of three young people living on the outskirts of Montevideo, before going on to win Best Film at the Rotterdam and Havana Film Festivals. More recently, Uruguayan cinema has also expanded into animation with Anina (2013), which won the Audience Award at the Buenos Aires Festival. More recently, La Uruguaya (2022) adapts Pedro Mairal's short story under the direction of Argentine Ana García Blaya. The film follows a writer in existential and financial crisis, who travels to Montevideo to collect a down payment and meets a young admirer... A Uruguayan-Argentine co-production, the work won awards in Latin America and Spain. Today, productions are on the increase, and the Uruguay International Film Festival is an annual opportunity to discover the country's cinematic diversity.
Captivating shootings in the Uruguayan lands
Despite the country's magnificent landscapes, it is mainly the cities of Uruguay that have recently attracted international filming, and not necessarily for the right reasons. Montevideo was the setting for two major films of 2006, Alfonso Cuaron's Son of Man and Michael Mann's Miami Vice . If the first is a dystopian fresco, depicting the end of humanity with as much talent as sadness, which uses little of the Uruguayan capital, the second highlights the country through many scenes. The Old City of Montevideo is used to represent the old neighborhoods of Havana, and we can also recognize the buildings of Atlántida behind the house of Isabella, played by the Chinese actress Gong Li. Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, the duo behind the film, could also be seen in Punta del Este. In 2020, and to boost a production still strongly competed by the Brazilian and Argentine industries, the government granted new tax cuts to big international studios. The series Conquest, produced by Keanu Reeves for Netflix, was shot for a large part of its production in Montevideo. But due to lack of funding, it was never completed. However, other projects are still attracted to this region, and no doubt Uruguay will soon reappear on your screens in one way or another.
Seeing movies in Uruguay
In Montevideo, you'll be spoilt for choice between the city's various cinemas. From the major complexes of the LIFE Cinemas group to the Cinemateca Uruguaya, film buffs can discover the latest Hollywood productions as well as Spanish-language and international films from the past and present. Surfing to the Cinémathèque Nationale website, you can learn more about the country's cinematic history, browse archival film extracts and enjoy an up-to-the-minute program of art house films. This institution is also one of the organizers of the Festival Cinematográfico Internacional del Uruguay, held in the capital since 1982. By taking part in this event, you'll have the chance to preview the best of contemporary Uruguayan short films, as well as many other nuggets that are sure to surprise you. Films from Europe, Latin America and elsewhere are also part of this wide-ranging selection, which rewards both young rising stars and films highlighting the most topical issues of the day. If you'd like to attend, plan your trip around April.
