“Who gave this son of a bitch his green card?” Actor-director Sean Penn remarked as he handed over the Oscar for the Best Film to Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu for his Birdman. The movie won four awards including the one for Best Director.
While Penn’s reaction stirred up a hot debate on social media – racist or said in jest? – we won’t get into that just yet.
What does interest us at the moment, though, is the number of Mexican directors and technicians who have burst in on the scene …some for the better, and some for the best.
Our list:
Alejandro González Iñárritu
This was Alejandro González Iñárritu’s fourth outing at the Oscars. In 2001, he was unsuccessfully nominated under the Best Foreign Language film category for his riveting film Amorres Perros. In 2007, he was nominated under the Best Director category for his third feature film, Babel while his Biutiful – in Spanish – also scored a nomination under Best Foreign Language Film in 2011.
Alfonso_Cuarón
Alfonso Cuarón; Guillermo del Toro
In 2014, the Best Director award was won by Alfonso Cuarón, a Mexican, for Gravity.
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Mexican director, producer and writer Guillermo del Toro won a nomination in 2006 under Best Original Screenplay for his compelling work – Pan’s Labyrinth – which is considered a cult masterpiece. Pan’s Labyrinth, in the same year, won the BAFTA award for Best Foreign Language film.
Emmanuel Lubezki; Rodrigo Prieto
For cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who won this year’s Oscar for Best Cinematography for his work in Birdman, it is a rare feat – this is his second consecutive Academy Award for Best Cinematography. In 2014, he’d won the award for Gravity, while in 2011, his work in the much-appreciated Terrence Malick movie, Tree of Life was nominated at the Oscars.
Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, in 2005, was nominated for Best Cinematography for his work in the film Brokeback Mountain. He had earlier handled the camera for giant flicks like Argo and The Wolf of Wallstreet.
Photo courtesy: Wikipedia