Carlos Cuarón is the writer-director of Rudo y Cursi (Tough and Corny), which is being released on May 8, 2009 by Sony Pictures Classics.
Cuarón was born in Mexico City in 1966. He studied English Literature at the UNAM (Mexico’s National University), took part in Hernán Lara Zavala’s narrative workshop, followed by Syd Field’s screen writing workshop and the Screenwriters Lab at the Sundance Institute. He has been a FONCA grant holder and is the author of short stories and stage plays such as ‘Llantas contra el pavimento’, ‘Zapatos y alpargatas’, ‘Puro y natural’, and ‘Coco Tuétano y la rebelión de las armas’.
In 1988, Carlos started collaborating with his brother Alfonso by co-writing several episodes of the TV series “La hora marcada”. After that, following an idea they both came up with, Carlos wrote the script for the film Sólo con tu pareja (Love in the Time of Hysteria) which starred Daniel Giménez Cacho and Claudia Ramírez. The film was very successful in Mexico, won the Ariel Award for Best Original Screenplay for Carlos and Alfonso, and was nominated to three more Ariel Awards, among which were Best First Feature for Alfonso and Best Cinematography for Emmanuel Lubezki.
In 1997, Carlos directed his first short film, Sístole Diástole, starring Salma Hayek and Lumi Cavazos. That same year, he co-wrote ¿Quién diablos es Juliette? (Who the Hell is Juliette?) directed by Carlos Marcovich, which won two Ariel Awards and several other awards at festivals such as Guadalajara, La Habana, Cartagena and Sundance.
Next, Carlos wrote and directed short films such as Noche de bodas (2000), which was selected for the Critic’s Week at the Cannes Film Festival, and Me la debes (You Owe Me One!) (2001). Meanwhile, Carlos and Alfonso co-wrote Y tu mamá también, which starred Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna. This film achieved an incredible international critical and commercial success, and was awarded, among many other prizes and nominations, the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Best Screenplay and Oscar and BAFTA nominations for Best Original Screenplay.
In 2002, Carlos wrote and directed his next short film, Juego de niños (Child’s Play); as well as the TV short films No me digan Hugo, Amor perdido and Amor al Tri, which humorously deal with issues related to soccer. The following year, he wrote El misterio del Trinidad, a film that was directed by José Luis García Agraz, and won two Ariel Awards and was nominated to seven more, among which was Best Original Screenplay.
In 2005, Carlos wrote and directed the short film Ofelia. At the same time, he was cocreator and producer of a series of television animated mini-episodes called “Poncho Balón va a la final”, which aired in Spain and several countries in Latin America during the 2006 World Cup in Germany. In 2007, he was invited to take part of a round table on “Soccer players that write and writers that play soccer” (“Futbolistas que escriben y escritores que futbolean”).
Carlos worked for several years on the Rudo y Cursi (Tough and Corny) script. It is also his feature directorial debut and the first production done by Cha Cha Chá, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s production company.
