Mar del Plata International Film Festival

Astor Piazzolla hall, the Festival main venue

Created in 1954 by Jesus Miller, it was not considered to be a competitive festival, it was just an exhibition of selected international movies; during this stage the event was named Festival Cinematográfico Internacional (International Cinematographic Festival).

In the early years famous international guests such as Mary Pickford, Gina Lollobrigida, Edward G. Robinson and Errol Flynn attended the event. The festival continued in this way until 1959, when the Argentine Film Critics Association took charge of running it; during this time the festival was approved and recognized by FIAPF.

In 1964 the festival moved temporarily to Buenos Aires, and the name was changed to Festival Cinematográfico Internacional de la República Argentina (International Cinematographic Festival of the Argentine Republic). In 1966 there was a military coup d'état in Argentina; in 1968 and 1970 the Instituto de Cine took charge of the festival.

From 1967 to 1969 the festival was cancelled because there were other festivals in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During the 1960s several well-known guests appeared, including: Paul Newman, Alberto Sordi, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Vittorio Gassman, Toshirō Mifune, François Truffaut, Karel Reisz, Catherine Deneuve, Juan Antonio Bardem, Anthony Perkins, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Maria Callas, Cantinflas, Andrzej Wajda, Jacques Tati, Lee Strasberg, George Hamilton.

After the 1970 edition, the festival was canceled when Argentina entered an unstable sociopolitical period that culminated in the highly repressive military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. There were some attempts to reactivate it, but none succeeded until 1996, when the festival returned with new renovations. Since then there have been several changes. In the first years the event was not held in March; from 2001 to 2007 it returned to that month, and since 2008 it has been held in November. During this stage the festival was granted a 'Category A', the highest class assigned by FIAPF, making it the most important film festival of Latin America. Nowadays, after a history marked by unstable political situations in Argentina, the festival is in constant growth and slowly regaining its historical reputation.

The main prize of the International Competition had different names throughout the history of the festival, but in 2004 it was definitely changed to Ástor in honor of the Argentine musician Ástor Piazzolla. The twenty-second Mar del Plata Film Festival, held in March of 2007, introduced a new competition specifically for Latin American film-makers. Now days, the festival helds four main competitions organised in various sections of the official selection: International Competition, Latin American Competition, Argentine Competition and, the more experimental one, Altered States Competition.

Currently, the awards given by the jury at the International Competition are: Golden Ástor for Best Film, Silver Ástor for Best Director, Silver Ástor for Best Actress, Silver Ástor for Best Actor, Silver Ástor for Best Script, and a Special Jury Award.

Year	Film	Original Title	Director	Country
1954	No awards given
Awarded as "Great Jury Prize"
1959	Wild Strawberries	Smultronstället	Ingmar Bergman	Sweden*
1960	The Bridge	Die Brücke	Bernhard Wicki	West Germany*
1961	Saturday Night and Sunday Morning		Karel Reisz	United Kingdom*
1962	His Days Are Numbered	I giorni contati	Elio Petri	Italy*
1963	Angyalok földje		György Révész	Hungary*
1964	The Organizer	I compagni	Mario Monicelli	Italy
1965	Time of Indifference	Gli Indifferenti	Francesco Maselli	Italy
1966	Long Live the Republic	¡At' Zije Republika!	Karel Kachyňa	Czechoslovakia*
1967	Festival Not Held
Awarded as "Great Condor Prize"
1968	Bonnie and Clyde		Arthur Penn	United States*
1969	Festival Not Held
1970	Macunaíma		Joaquim Pedro de Andrade	Brazil*
1971-1995	Festival Cancelled
Awarded as "Golden Ombú"
1996	The Dog in the Manger	El Perro del Hortelano	Pilar Miró	Spain*
1997	The Tango Lesson		Sally Potter	United Kingdom
1998	The Cloud and the Rising Sun	Abr-O Aftaab	Mahmoud Kalari	Iran*
1999	God's Wedding	As Bodas de Deus	João César Monteiro	Portugal*
2000	Festival Not Held
2001	It's Me, the Thief	To ja, Zlodziej	Jacek Bromski	Poland*
2002	Bolivar Is Me	Bolívar Soy Yo	Jorge Alí Triana	Colombia*
2003	Breaking Up	Separações	Domingos de Oliveira	Brazil
Awarded as "Golden Ástor"
2004	Good Life Delivery	Buena Vida (Delivery)	Leonardo Di Cesare	Argentina*
2005	Le grand voyage		Ismaël Ferroukhi	France* /  Morocco*
2006	News from Afar	Noticias Lejanas	Ricardo Benet	Mexico*
2007	Fiction	Ficció	Cesc Gay	Spain
2008	Still Walking	歩いても 歩いても / Aruitemo aruitemo	Hirokazu Koreeda	Japan*
2009	Nora's Will	Cinco Días Sin Nora	Mariana Chenillo	Mexico
2010	Essential Killing		Jerzy Skolimowski	Poland
2011	Back to Stay	Abrir Puertas y Ventanas	Milagros Mumenthaler	Argentina
2012	Beyond the Hills	Dupa dealuri	Cristian Mungiu	Romania*
2013	The Golden Dream	La Jaula de Oro	Diego Quemada-Díez	Mexico
2014	Come to my Voice	Were Dengê Min	Hüseyin Karabey	Turkey*
2015	Embrace of the Serpent	El Abrazo de la Serpiente	Ciro Guerra	Colombia
2016	People That Are Not Me	Anashim shehem lo ani	Hadas Ben Aroya	Israel*
2017	Wajib	واجب	Annemarie Jacir	Palestine*
2018	Between Two Waters	Entre dos aguas	Isaki Lacuesta	Spain
2019	Fire Will Come	O que arde	Óliver Laxe	Spain

• * Denotes first win

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