Alejandro González Iñárritu (American Spanish: ; 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.
Iñárritu was born on 15 August 1963 in Mexico City, the youngest of seven siblings, to Luz María Iñárritu and Héctor González Gama.
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.
Héctor was a banker who owned a ranch, but went bankrupt when Iñárritu was five.
A poor student, Iñárritu was expelled from high school at the age of 16 or 17 due to poor grades and misbehavior.
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.
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.
He has noted that these early travels as a young man have had a great influence on him as a filmmaker, and the settings of his films have often been in the places he visited during this period.
After his travels, Iñárritu returned to Mexico City and majored in communications at Universidad Iberoamericana.
1984
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".
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.
1987
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.
Iñárritu has stated that he believes music has had a bigger influence on him as an artist than film itself.
1990
In the early 1990s, Iñárritu created Z Films, a production company, with Raul Olvera in Mexico.
Under Z Films, he started writing, producing and directing short films and advertisements.
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.
1995
In 1995, Iñárritu wrote and directed his first TV pilot for Z Films, called Detrás del dinero, or Behind the Money, starring Miguel Bosé.
Death trilogy
2000
His most notable films include Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), Babel (2006), Biutiful (2010), Birdman (2014), The Revenant (2015), and Bardo (2022).
Iñárritu's films, Amores Perros (2000), and Biutiful (2010) each received Academy Award for Best International Feature Film nominations.
In 2000, Iñárritu directed his first feature film Amores perros, written by Guillermo Arriaga.
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.
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.
2003
He earned critical and commercial success for his films 21 Grams (2003), and Babel (2006).
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).
2014
He won three Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay for Birdman (2014).
2015
The following year, he received a consecutive Best Director Oscar for The Revenant (2015).
2017
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.
2019
In 2019, Iñárritu became the first Latin American to serve as President of the Jury for the 72nd Cannes Film Festival.
Iñárritu and Mexican filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro are known in the film industry as "The Three Amigos".
