Born in México City in 1963. In 1984 he started his career as DJ in the top-rated Mexican radio station WFM. At the same time he studied film making and theater. From 1988 to 1990 he composed music for six Mexican features like "Garra de tigre".
In the nineties he became one of the youngest producers in Mexican TV when he was in charge of the production of Televisa, Mexico's most important TV ...
show all Born in México City in 1963. In 1984 he started his career as DJ in the top-rated Mexican radio station WFM. At the same time he studied film making and theater. From 1988 to 1990 he composed music for six Mexican features like "Garra de tigre".
In the nineties he became one of the youngest producers in Mexican TV when he was in charge of the production of Televisa, Mexico's most important TV company.
After leaving Televisa, he created Zeta Films, his own film company. He started off writing and shooting TV advertising for Mexican television (some of them can be seen in his first feature "Amores Perros"). But for him those commercials were just rehearsals for a future movie. At the same time he continued his studies of filmmaking in Maine and Los Angeles, under Polish director Ludwig Margules.
His first half-length feature, "Detrás del dinero", was produced in 1995 for Televisa and starring Spanish actor Miguel Bosé.
Looking for good stories he read a lot of scripts and got himself introduced to Guillermo Arriaga, an screenwriter with whom he planned to make 11 shorts to show the contradictory nature of Mexico City. After 3 years and 36 drafts, they ended up settling on only 3 stories and expanding them. That movie, "Amores Perros", became a huge success worldwide at its release at the Festival de Cannes 2000 where it received the award of the best film by the Semaine de la Critique. It also earned an Oscar nomination for best foreign movie.
In 2002, González Iñárritu participated in the making of a collective movie about the influence of 9-11 in the world. Among the others directors participating in the movie where such prestigious filmmakers like Wim Wenders, Ken Loach, Mira Nair, Amos Gitai and Sean Penn.
The success of those movies opened the doors of Hollywood to Alejandro. His second feature, "21 Grams", also written by Guillermo Arriaga, was shot in English and starred American actors like Sean Penn. Benicio del Toro and Naomi Watts were also in the cast, and received Academy Award nominations for their participation.
At this moment, González Iñárritu is collaborating with Guillermo Arriaga in the writing of a third movie that will form a trilogy about death with his others two first pictures.
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