Alejandro Agresti Receives the Astor Piazzolla Lifetime Achievement Award

Upon receiving the award at the Teatro Colón, the acclaimed director paid tribute to the creator of tango and reflected on the enduring relevance of his cinema: “It’s a very singular award because it bears the name of someone I deeply admire.”

At the 41st Mar del Plata International Film Festival, renowned Argentine filmmaker Alejandro Agresti received the Astor Piazzolla Lifetime Achievement Award tonight. The ceremony took place at the Teatro Municipal Colón, moments before a special free screening of his iconic film El acto en cuestión (1993).

The event was opened by the Festival’s co-artistic directors, Gabriel Lerman and Jorge Stamadianos, who welcomed the audience and highlighted Agresti’s significance both to the history of Argentine cinema and to the festival itself. In presenting the award, they noted that when searching for an Argentine director with a deep connection to Mar del Plata and a transcendent body of work, consensus was immediate. They also traced the arc of his career, underscoring how his early films transformed Argentine cinema with limited resources and revolutionized the understanding of cinematic language.

Jorge Stamadianos offered heartfelt words about the honoree’s aesthetic and cultural impact: “He opened minds and opened paths. The Argentineness that Alejandro showed in his titles and his words always stood out. He has addressed all the great Argentine themes of recent decades — including the pain depicted in Buenos Aires Viceversa with visual and dramatic force. He created generations of filmmakers. That Astor and Alejandro should come together on this night is more than deserved“.

Visibly moved, Agresti kissed the statuette the moment he received it on stage. “How moving, Astor“, he said, and of the film: “Whoever hasn’t seen it is going to think they’re dreaming“.

“It’s a very singular award because it bears the name of someone I deeply admire — an artist who had to fight for his place, against every obstacle put in his way, and who knew how to defend his sensibility and his way of making music, just as one sometimes has to defend one’s way of making cinema. He is an example, someone all Argentines should be proud of“, he said.

The director also shared his deep personal connection to the film screened during the evening — a film starring Carlos Roffé that passed through the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993: “It’s one of the films I love most. It’s a portrait of Argentineness, a period film shot in eight European countries. It’s a film that will always be relevant, and one I am still trying to understand“.

The distinction crowned an intensive day dedicated to the filmmaker at the 41st Festival, which had begun earlier with an open conversation at the Centro de Creación Chauvin, moderated by Gabriel Lerman.

Agresti and His History with the Festival

Born on June 2, 1961, Agresti built an extensive and deeply personal body of work that took him to film in Argentina, the Netherlands, and the United States — where he directed The Lake House, starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. His longstanding relationship with the Mar del Plata International Film Festival includes milestones such as the Best Latin American Film prize for Buenos Aires Viceversa (1996), the Special Jury Prize for Valentín (2003), and his participation in the 2015 International Competition with Mecánica popular.