Golden age of Mexican cinema

The Golden Age of Mexican cinema (in Spanish Época de Oro del Cine Mexicano) is a period in the history of the Cinema of Mexico between 1936 and 1959 when the Mexican film industry reached high levels of production, quality and economic success of its films, besides having gained recognition internationally. The Mexican film industry became the center of commercial films in Latin America.

The Golden Age began symbolically with the film Vámonos con Pancho Villa (1935), directed by Fernando de Fuentes. In 1939, during World War II, the film industry in the US and Europe decline, because the materials previously destined for film production now were for the new arms industry. Many countries began to focus on making films about war, leaving the opportunity to Mexico, to produce commercial films for the Mexican and Latin American markets. This cultural environment favored the emergence of a new generation of directors and actors considered to date, icons in Mexico and in Hispanic countries and Spanish-speaking audiences.

In 1939 Europe and the United States they participated in the World War II, and the film industries of these regions were severely affected. Europe due to its location and the United States because the materials used to produce films (such as cellulose), became scarce and were rationed. In 1942, when German submarines destroyed a Mexican tanker, Mexico joined the Allies in the war against Germany. Mexico won the status of most favored nation. Thus, the Mexican film industry found new sources of materials and equipment and secured its position in the production of quality films worldwide. During World War II, the film industry in France, Italy, Spain, Argentina and the United States focused on war films, which made it possible the Mexican film industry, with much more versatile themes, became dominant in the markets of Mexico and Latin America.

Since the beginning of talkies in Mexico, some films (like Santa (1931), directed by Antonio Moreno and The Woman of the Port (1934), directed by Arcady Boytler, were a huge blockbuster that showed that Mexico had the equipment and talent needed to sustain a strong film industry. One of the first blockbusters was the film Allá en el Rancho Grande by Fernando de Fuentes, which became the first classic of Mexican cinema; this film is referred to as the initiator of the "Mexican film industry".

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Wikipedia