Oscar Directors: Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, whose Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is Mexico’s submission for the best international feature Oscar this year, is an Academy favorite.
His films have been nominated for 33 Oscars, with 8 wins.
He has been nominated 7 times and won 4, including for picture, director and original screenplay for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), and director for The Revenant.
But when the writer-director made his first feature, Amores Perros, he was largely unknown — and the film’s nomination for best foreign-language Oscar was a surprise.

The movie was a critical and commercial success and marked a surge in Mexican cinema on a global scale. “Mexicans have been afraid to explore deeply, look into themselves, but this has changed in the past few years,” Iñárritu said.
Shooting in Mexico City had its snags, though, as the director recalled in 2001: “We were outside a house we wanted to use as a location. Suddenly, two guys age 13 and 15 were there with big guns. They threw us on the floor, shouted, took everything from us.”
Rather than be perturbed by the incident, Iñárritu cast both young men as extras in the film.