The annual Cannes ad festival is upon us and despite the usual preparations (sit-ups crunched, fashionable frocks selected, 12-step programs abandoned), this year's week-long gathering promises to be slightly more sedate, due in no small part to the ad industry's shaky footing in the bubbling swamp that is the 21st Century global economy.

That said, North American and European commercial types stinging from a painful year might take a lesson in perseverance from Argentina.

Long a hotbed of commercial excellence, the ongoing meltdown of the Argentine economy has definitely slowed board flow in Buenos Aires, yet award-winning creative, critically-acclaimed films and a healthy production services market point to a production situation not quite as dire as commonly portrayed.

Case in point, 43-year-old director Fabian Bielinsky. Bielinsky's name first drew attention when he picked up a shiny feline at the 2001 Cannes Lions for Argentina Telecom "Yawn," through Buenos Aires' Agulla & Baccetti. The spot has gone on to receive similar honors from jurors at such noteworthy affairs as The Clios, The One Show and FIAP. Meanwhile his first feature, Nine Queens, has received glowing reviews and is now on limited release in the US.

"'Yawn' is the first commercial I directed," says Bielinsky. "It's nice to win but believe me, when we won the Lion, I realized it was the idea winning the award. Awards don't affect me very much; we are talking about a spot that is doomed to win every award. When I start winning awards for something else then I will get excited."

Nevertheless, "Yawn" has opened doors for Bielinsky, getting him signed with Madrid's Bus Productions and Los Angeles' Palomar Pictures. Admittedly picky when it comes to choosing commercial scripts, the director definitely favors spending his time on features. The commercials he directs tend towards the streetwise, realistic and character-driven content of Nine Queens.

Opportunities abroad have constituted a lifeline for board-bereft Argentine directing talent. Many of those that have stayed behind have been forced to adapt or perish. Flehner Films, one of the largest production houses in Buenos Aires, saw its fortunes fluctuate along with the economy at large, with high interest rates, unstable banks and the 9/11 production slowdown pushing the company to the brink. But the peso, now pegged at roughly 3.5:1 against the greenback, has reduced the sum total of the company's debt and made shooting in Argentina viable for not just Europeans and North Americans, but other Latin Americans.

"Argentina remains a good place to come and produce. Our main concern was the local advertising market, which has dropped 40% in the 1st quarter of 2002 compared to 2001," says Flehner CEO Ramiro Mazzeo. "Our strategy as a production company is going abroad and bringing projects for shooting in Argentina."

So, directors Marcelo Szechtman and Edy Flehner have been shooting US, Ecuadorian and Bolivian jobs along with the rare Argentine project, keeping the company afloat. But the future remains uncertain. Is Argentina to become a backlot for comparatively wealthy Northern producers seeking savings, locations or what have you, or, creative hotspot turning out top internationally viable talent? The real answer seems to be both.

"In Argentina, economic problems are not strange and to be in trouble is common for everyone," says Bielinsky, who seems a consistent realist. "The situation has been worse and we can overcome the problems."

See you in the gutter... I mean Gutter Bar.