Netflix presented more than a dozen of its upcoming Argentine productions, including a long-awaited adaptation of El Eternauta, starring Ricardo Darin, Diego Lerman’s The Man Who Loved UFOs, and Mafalda, at their ‘Made in Argentina’ event in the San Martín Cultural Center in Buenos Aires on Monday.

The event was hosted by Netflix’s Content VP for Latin America, Francisco ‘Paco’ Ramos, and featured such talent from the platforms’ films and series as Griselda Siciliani, Adrián Suar and Santiago Korovsky.

Also on offer were preview clips and presentations of more than a dozen shows and films that Netflix will release through 2025. As local film and television productions have stalled amid severe government cuts to the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA, by its Spanish acronym), streaming content has emerged as one of the country’s most popular forms of entertainment. 

“Today, we have some 20 projects underway, including series, documentaries, films and a script,” said Ramos, who hosted the event together with TV host Dario Barassi. “I want to make it clear that we’re still betting on Argentina, and we’re not going to stop.”

Barassi himself will head the Argentine version of the Love is Blind reality show format, also featuring Wanda Nara.    

The event’s organizers saved the most anticipated preview for last: a behind-the-scenes look at Bruno Stagnaro’s adaptation of the iconic Argentine graphic novel, El Eternauta, which follows an apocalyptic alien invasion of Buenos Aires. Co-produced by K&S, the series is currently in post-production and is reported to be one of the most ambitious Argentine productions in recent years.

“This project is a gateway for us to, maybe, dream about continuing to make things of a similar scope,” said Darin of the series. “It’s very big.”

Ramos has likewise described El Eternauta as “one of the most important projects of the audiovisual industry in Argentina and Latin America.” 

Originally published as a weekly strip in the magazine “Hora Cero” in 1957, El Eternauta (“The Eternaut”, a Spanish neologism that describes an eternal astronaut) is one of Argentina’s most storied comics — one whose author, Héctor Oesterheld, was disappeared by the military dictatorship, along with his four daughters, in the 1970s. 

Earlier in the evening, Juan José Campanella introduced his upcoming adaptation of Mafalda, a beloved Argentine comic strip by the late Joaquín Salvador Lavado (Quino). First published in 1963, Mafalda follows the travails of a precocious, outspoken girl from a middle-class family in San Telmo while offering biting social commentary. 

“It is the biggest challenge of my life,” said the Oscar-winning director of The Secret in Their Eyes. 

The evening had something for sports lovers as well — specifically a first look at Ángel Di María: Romper la pared, a three-part documentary series that focuses on the career of the Benfica player and world champion Argentine forward, and is scheduled to premiere on September 12. 

Other highlights from the event included previews of Daniel Hendler’s 27 noches (based on Natalia Zito’s novel about enowned artist Natalia Kohen, who was misdiagnosed and hopitalized against her will); the comedy show Envidiosa, starring Griselda Siciliani; the Harlan Coben adaptation Atrapados; the second season of Santiago Korovsky’s comedy series División Palermo (about a squad of “urban guards” with disabilities); and Sebastian Ortega’s women’s prison drama En el barro, a spin-off of his previous Netflix hit, El Marginal.  

During his presentation, Ramos also listed some Argentine films that the platform plans to stream following their release in theaters. They include Benjamín Ávila’s La mujer de la fila, Agustina Macri’s Miss Carbón, Daniel Burman’s Transmitzvah and Federico Luis’ Simon of the Mountain, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes Critics Week this year. 

“The licensing aspect is important, because we want you to know that we are interested in every [business] model, as long as your films end up in Netflix,” he added.