Cinema of Uruguay
| Cinema of Uruguay | |
|---|---|
| Number of screens | 61 (2011) |
| • Per capita | 2.0 per 100,000 (2011) |
| Produced feature films (2005-2009) | |
| Total | 11 (average) |
| Number of admissions (2010) | |
| Total | 2,300,000 |
| Gross box office (2009) | |
| Total | $16.6 million |
| National films | $437,285 (4.1%) |
The cinema of Uruguay has a role in the culture of Uruguay and is a part of Latin American cinema. Since the late 1990s, the Uruguayan cinema undergoes a process of evolution, during which its films have received positive reviews and been internationally recognized. Over 120 films, fictions and non-fictions, have been produced since then.
Louis Lumière's invention was introduced to Uruguayan audiences on July 18, 1898, at the Salón Rouge, a popular local cabaret. Local businessman Félix Oliver purchased Uruguay's first film, camera and projector from the Lumiére brothers themselves; with them he made Bicycle Race in the Arroyo Seco Velodrome, the second film produced in Latin America.
With his first short film a success, Oliver established the country's first film studio and continued to make documentaries. One of Argentina's first cinematographers, French-born Henri Corbicier, took Uruguayan film in a new direction, however, when he produced The Peace of 1904, a documentary about Uruguay's recent political conflict and its resolution. Corbicier continued to produce newsreels and documentaries for the Uruguayan public for some time and influenced others to do the same.
Receiving most of their commercial films from Argentine studios, Uruguayan audiences saw no domestic fiction film titles until, in 1919, the local non-profit society Bonne Garde financed Pervanche, directed by León Ibáñez. Unsuccessful, the effort was the country's only one of its type until Juan Antonio Borges' Souls on the Coast. Released in 1923, it is considered to be the first Uruguayan feature film. Its studio, Charrúa Films, produced one more feature film (Adventures of a Parisian Girl in Montevideo) before closing in 1927.
Inspiring others, however, this modest beginning led Carlos Alonso to produce The Little Hero of Arroyo de Oro in 1929; the film, a realist tragedy set in the countryside, was in the vanguard due to its frank and graphic depiction of domestic violence and was the first commercially successful Uruguayan film.
Despite other difficulties, the year 1930 provided Uruguayan film makers an unexpected opportunity when their national football team won that year's World Cup. Justino Zavala Muñiz produced rousing documentaries on the event, which also coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Uruguayan Constitution. His success enabled him to establish the Uruguyan Cine-Club, from where he premiered the acclaimed Sky, Water and Sea Lions, among other documentaries and fiction films.
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