Alejandro González Iñárritu

Iñárritu and the Biutiful cast at Cannes Film Festival

Iñárritu began his career in 1984 as a radio host at the Mexican radio station WFM, the country's most popular rock music station, where he "pieced together playlists into a loose narrative arc".[10][11] He worked with and interviewed artists like Robert Plant, David Gilmour, Elton John, Bob Geldof and Carlos Santana. He also wrote and broadcast small audio stories and storytelling promos. He later became the youngest producer for Televisa, the largest mass media company in Latin America.[11] From 1987 to 1989, he composed music for six Mexican feature films. During this time, Iñárritu became acquainted with Mexican writer Guillermo Arriaga, beginning their screenwriting collaborations.[11] Iñárritu has stated that he believes music has had a bigger influence on him as an artist than film itself.[10]

In the early 1990s, Iñárritu created Z Films, a production company, with Raul Olvera in Mexico.[12] Under Z Films, he started writing, producing and directing short films and advertisements.[11] Making the final transition into TV and film directing, he studied under well-known theater director Ludwik Margules, as well as Judith Weston in Los Angeles.[13][14] In 1995, Iñárritu wrote and directed his first TV pilot for Z Films, called Detrás del dinero, or Behind the Money, starring Miguel Bosé.[12]

Death trilogy (2000-2006)

Iñárritu and Cate Blanchett on the set of Babel

In 2000, Iñárritu directed his first feature film Amores perros, written by Guillermo Arriaga.[11] Amores perros explored Mexican society in Mexico City told via three intertwining stories. In 2000, Amores perros premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Critics' Week Grand Prize.[15] It was the film debut of actor Gael García Bernal, who would later appear in Babel and the Iñárritu-produced Mexican film Rudo y Cursi. Amores perros was the first installment in Iñárritu's and Arriaga's thematic "Death trilogy", and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[16][17]

After the success of Amores Perros, Iñárritu and Arriaga revisited the intersected-stories structure of Amores perros in Iñárritu's second feature film, 21 Grams (2003).[11] The film starred Benicio del Toro, Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, where Penn received the Volpi Cup for Best Actor.[18][19] At the 76th Academy Awards, Del Toro and Watts received nominations for their performances.[20]

Iñárritu embarked on his third and last film that formed the "Death Trilogy", Babel (2006), written again by Arriaga.[21][22][23] Babel comprises four interrelated stories set in Morocco, Mexico, the United States, and Japan, in four different languages.[24] The film stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Adriana Barraza, Gael Garcia Bernal, Rinko Kikuchi and Kōji Yakusho. The rest of the cast comprised non-professional actors.[25] The film competed at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, where Iñárritu received the Best Director Award (Prix de la mise en scène),[26] becoming the first Mexican-born director to win the award.[27]

Babel was a critical and box office success. It received seven nominations at the 79th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.[18] Gustavo Santaolalla, the film's composer, won the Academy Award for Best Original Score.[28] The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama in 2007.[29] Iñárritu became the first Mexican director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Directing and the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing.[30][31] After this third feature film collaboration with writing partner Arriaga, Iñárritu and he professionally parted ways, following Iñárritu's barring of Arriaga from the set during filming. Arriaga told the Los Angeles Times in 2009, "It had to come to an end, but I still respect [González Iñárritu]."[32]

Biutiful (2010)

In 2010, Iñárritu directed and produced Biutiful, starring Javier Bardem, written by Iñárritu, Armando Bó Jr., and Nicolás Giacobone.[33] The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2010.[34] Bardem went on to win Best Actor (shared with Elio Germano for La nostra vita) at Cannes.[35] Biutiful is Iñárritu's first film in his native Spanish since his debut feature Amores perros. The film was nominated at the 2011 Golden Globes for Best Foreign Language Film, and at the BAFTA Awards for Best Film Not in the English Language and Best Actor.[36][37] For the second time in his career, Iñárritu's film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards; Javier Bardem's performance was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.[38]

Birdman (2014)

In 2014, Iñárritu ultimately won three Academy Awards for directing, co-writing and co-producing Best Picture winner Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), starring Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Zach Galifianakis, and Andrea Riseborough. The film is an existential dark comedy exploring the ego of a forgotten superhero actor, experienced as if filmed on a single shot. It was the first time a Mexican Filmmaker received Best Picture at the Academy Awards. He also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay, a DGA Award and a PGA Award for the film.[39][40]

The Revenant (2015)

The following year, Iñárritu directed The Revenant, initially adapted by Mark L. Smith, before joined the writing process, based on Michael Punke's novel of the same name.[41][42] The film is a remake [43] of the film Man in the Wilderness (1971) and starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, and Will Poulter.[44] It is a "gritty" 19th-century period drama-thriller about fur trapper Hugh Glass, a real person who joined the Rocky Mountain Fur Company on a "journey into the wild" and was robbed and abandoned after being mauled by a grizzly bear.[42] The film considers the nature and stresses on relationships under the duress of the wilderness, and issues of revenge and pardon via Glass's pursuit of the man who was responsible for his hardship.[41][45] The Revenant took nine months to shoot.[46] With The Revenant being a critical and commercial success, Iñárritu won a second consecutive Oscar for Best Director[47] and was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, winning Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Actor.[48][49] Iñárritu is one of only three directors to ever win consecutive Oscars, and the first to do it in 65 years. He was also nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, winning three, including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director;[50] received nine Critics' Choice Movie Awards nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director;[51] five BAFTAs including Best Picture and Best Director; and a DGA Award, making history as the first person to ever win two in a row.

The One Percent, originally planned as an upcoming American television drama series created and written by Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris Jr., Nicolás Giacobone and Armando Bó, was eventually postponed on early March 2017 due to Alejandro feeling burnt out after the production of The Revenant. The quartet, who also collaborated on Birdman, were to serve as executive producers. Iñárritu was set to direct the first two episodes and set the visual style of the show.[52]

In 2020, it was reported that Iñárritu would write, direct, and produce a new film in Mexico, his first film made there since Amores Perros 20 years previously, and his third Spanish-Language film after Amores Perros and Biutiful.[53] The film entitled Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, stars Daniel Giménez Cacho and Griselda Siciliani.

Iñárritu at the Cannes Film Festival 2019

From 2001 to 2011, Iñárritu directed several short films. In 2001, he directed an 11-minute film segment for 11'09"01 September 11 - which is composed of several short films that explore the effects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks from different points of view around the world.[11] In 2007, he made ANNA, part of French anthology film Chacun son cinéma, which screened at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Chacun son cinéma, a collection of 33 short films by 35 renowned film directors representing 25 countries, was produced for the 60th anniversary of the film festival.[54] In 2012, Iñárritu made the experimental short film Naran Ja: One Act Orange Dance, inspired by L.A Dance Project's premiere performance, featuring excerpts from the new choreography Benjamin Millepied crafted for Moving Parts. The story takes place in a secluded, dusty space and centers around LADP dancer Julia Eichten.[55]

In 2002, Iñárritu directed "Powder Keg", an episode for the BMW short film series The Hire, starring Clive Owen as the driver and Stellan Skarsgård as a war photographer. It won the Cannes Gold Lion Advertising Award.[56] In 2010, Iñárritu directed "Write the Future", a football-themed commercial for Nike ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which went on to win the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival.[57] In 2012, he directed Procter & Gamble's "Best Job" commercial spot for the 2012 Olympic Ceremonies. It won the Best Primetime Commercial Emmy at Creative Arts Emmy Awards[58] and the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials.[59]

On 4 October 2012, Facebook released an Iñárritu-directed brand film titled The Things That Connect Us to celebrate the social network reaching one billion users.[60]

Iñárritu's virtual reality project Carne y Arena was the first ever VR installation presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017. Carne y Arena was also presented, at LACMA, Washington DC and featured at the Prada Foundation in Milan.[61][62] Additionally, Carne y Arena was awarded the first Special Achievement Academy Award in over 20 years at the Academy's 9th Annual Governors Awards.[63]

As executive producer only

• Nine Lives (2005)
• Mother and Child (2009)