Six for Six – Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu

What do you do when your first four feature films reach critical and commercial success? Well if you’re Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, when you step up to the plate that fifth time, you knock it out of the park in the form of Best Picture and Best Director Oscar wins. The latter of which made the filmmaker the first Mexican to ever win the award.

The creator of such hits as Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful and Birdman, was born in Mexico City, but crossed the Atlantic on a cargo ship in his late teens and worked his way across Europe and Africa—travels that he acknowledges had a great influence on him as a filmmaker.

Yet, Iñárritu would eventually return to Mexico City to obtain his education, majoring in communications at Universidad Iberoamericana. Ironically film was not his first passion or form of employment. He started out as a DJ for a radio station in Mexico. His five-year love affair with music is what actually helped him segue into film. He first started by composing music for feature films and then studying film under famed Polish theatre director Ludwik Margules.

Iñárritu would go on to establish the film company Z Films with partner Raul Olvera where he began writing, directing and producing short films and ads. In 1999, he directed his first feature Amores Perros. The movie would launch his career and would garner an Oscar nod for Best Foreign Language film. It also introduced the world to another Mexican powerhouse, Gael Garcia Bernal. The hits kept coming with films like 21 Grams, Babel and Birdman which garnered Iñárritu his first Oscar for Best Director. The win was historic and his speech, defining. Iñárritu used the platform for the greater good by shining a light on the hot-button issue of immigration reform. He closed his speech by saying “I pray that [Mexico] can build a government that we deserve. And that the ones living in this country who are part of the latest generation of immigrants in this country. I just pray that they can be treated with the same dignity and respect of the ones who came before and built this incredible immigration nation.” Talk about choosing conscious over commerce!

Ohh, lest you think Iñárritu is one to rest on his laurels, he’s just released his sixth feature film, The Revenant, starring Leo DiCaprio, a revenge tale set in the 19th century wilderness. It has already garnered the filmmaker Golden Globe nominations for Best Film and Best Director. Six for six anyone?

Image Credit: C. Flanigan