Alejandro González Iñárritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu (/ɪˈnjɑːrɪtuː/; American Spanish: [aleˈxandɾo ɣonˈsales iˈɲaritu]; credited since 2016 as Alejandro G. Iñárritu; born 15 August 1963) is a Mexican filmmaker. He is primarily known for making modern psychological drama films about the human condition. His projects have garnered critical acclaim and numerous accolades including four Academy Awards with a Special Achievement Award, three Golden Globe Awards, three BAFTA Awards, two Directors Guild of America Awards. His most notable films include Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), Babel (2006), Biutiful (2010), Birdman (2014), The Revenant (2015), and Bardo (2022).
"Iñárritu" redirects here. For other people with that surname, see Iñárritu (surname).
Alejandro González Iñárritu
15 August 1963
Alejandro G. Iñárritu
- Film director
- producer
- screenwriter
- editor
- composer
1984–present
Maria Eladia Hagerman
2
Iñárritu's films, Amores Perros (2000), and Biutiful (2010) each received Academy Award for Best International Feature Film nominations. He earned critical and commercial success for his films 21 Grams (2003), and Babel (2006). He won three Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay for Birdman (2014). The following year, he received a consecutive Best Director Oscar for The Revenant (2015).[a] Iñárritu was awarded a Special Achievement Academy Award for his virtual reality installation Carne y Arena (2017).
Iñárritu is the first Mexican filmmaker to be nominated for either director or producer in the history of the Academy Awards, the first to win an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and for Best Picture, the first to receive the Best Director Award at Cannes, and the first to win a DGA Award for Outstanding Directing. In 2019, Iñárritu became the first Latin American to serve as president of the jury for the 72nd Cannes Film Festival.[1] Iñárritu and Mexican filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro are known in the film industry as "The Three Amigos".[2]
Early life[edit]
Iñárritu was born on 15 August 1963 in Mexico City, the youngest of seven siblings, to Luz María Iñárritu and Héctor González Gama.[3][4][5] His maternal grandfather, Alfredo Iñárritu y Ramírez de Aguilar, was a prominent lawyer, judge, and justice of the Supreme Court of Mexico with partial Basque origins.[6] Héctor was a banker who owned a ranch, but went bankrupt when Iñárritu was five.[5][7] A poor student, Iñárritu was expelled from high school at the age of 16 or 17 due to poor grades and misbehavior.[5][7][8] He briefly ran off with a girl from a wealthy family to Acapulco, having been influenced by the Miloš Forman film Hair, but returned to Mexico City after a week.[5][8]
Soon after, Iñárritu left home and worked as a sailor on cargo boats, taking two trips at the ages of 16 and 18, sailing through the Mississippi River and then visiting Europe and Africa. With $1,000 supplied by his father, Iñárritu stayed in Europe for a year on the second trip.[9][10] He has noted that these early travels as a young man have had a great influence on him as a filmmaker,[10] and the settings of his films have often been in the places he visited during this period.[8] After his travels, Iñárritu returned to Mexico City and majored in communications at Universidad Iberoamericana.[11]
Influences[edit]
Iñarritu's cinematic influences include Max Ophüls, Robert Altman, Sidney Lumet, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel, Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergio Leone, Martin Scorsese, and John Cassavetes. However, his influences are not limited to film and come from a variety of sources.[70]
Personal life[edit]
Iñárritu has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.[71] He is married to Maria Eladia Hagerman, an editor and graphic designer. They have a daughter, Maria Eladia, and a son, Eliseo.[8][72]
In 2009, Iñárritu, along with several filmmakers and actors, signed a petition in support of director Roman Polanski, who had been detained while traveling to a film festival following his arrest in relation to his 1977 sexual abuse charges, which the petition argued would undermine the tradition of film festivals as a place for works to be shown "freely and safely", and that arresting filmmakers traveling to neutral countries could open the door "for actions of which no-one can know the effects."[73][74][75]