Biography - Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

With a trio of films about loneliness, isolation, and the tragic difficulty of connection in a fractured world, Alejandro González Iñárritu has gone from an unknown Mexican director to an international film-fest superstar. His three films, “Amores perros,” “21 Grams,” and “Babel,” display a totally unique sensibility that renders the most ordinary spaces into sights of nightmarish violence and gut-wrenching drama. Though sometimes criticized for the heavy, humorless nature of his work, it’s practically impossible to deny that Iñárritu is one of the most daring and original directors alive.

Iñárritu studied cinema in the United States and for a time worked as a DJ for popular Mexico City pop station WFM. His earliest work in film is as a composer, and starting in the late 80s he began regularly writing scores for Mexican features. He also headed up production at a television studio, Televisa, while still in his mid-20s. He then set up Zeta Films, a small production company for which he directed several commercials. In the late 90s Iñárritu teamed up with scribe Guillermo Arriaga to create a series of short films concerned with the grim realities of life in Mexico City. After years of writing, the pair combined the stories into a feature, which became the stunning and occasionally brutal ensemble drama “Amores perros,” which received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and made hunky young actor Gael García Bernal a star. Hollywood was soon knocking on Inarritu’s door, and his next film “21 Grams” (which earned Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro Oscar nods) found similar critical success.

In 2006 Inarritu’s latest film “Babel” was released to wide international acclaim, and won the talented helmer the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The film’s stars – Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal, Rinko Kikuchi, and Adriana Barraza – have been singled out for their outstanding performances, with most of them receiving Golden Globe nominations. The only sad news for Inarritu as of late is the dissolution of his partnership with Arriaga (reportedly the pair have been feuding for years) and the death of his long-time filmmaking instructor, Polish director Ludwik Margules.