Cuarón, Alfonso (1961–)

The young Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón, like Luis Puenzo, Héctor Babenco, and Guillermo del Toro, became one of Hollywood's most celebrated filmmakers in the 1990s. Born on 28 November 1961, he studied at Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos in Mexico City, but eventually he was expelled from this university. After serving as assistant director for such films as Gaby Brimmer, una historia verdadera (Gaby: A True Story, 1987), Romero (1989), and Diplomatic Immunity (1991), he directed his first feature film, the hugely successful Sólo con tu pareja (Love in the Time of Hysteria, 1991), for which he also cowrote the screenplay with his brother Carlos. Subsequent films in which Cuarón was both director and screenwriter include Y tu mamá también (2001), a segment of Paris, je t'aime (2006), and Children of Men (2006). As director his credits include such films as A Little Princess (1995), Great Expectations (1998), and The Possibility of Hope (2007). The biggest box-office success of his career as of 2007 came when Warner Brothers invited him to direct the third Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). Cuarón has also been a producer or executive producer for films including Crónicas (2004), The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004), Black Sun (2005), and El laberinto del fauno (Pan's Labyrinth, 2006). Cuarón has received three Oscar nominations in addition to twenty-two wins and eighteen nominations for other prestigious awards.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ciuk, Perla. Diccionario de directores del cine mexicano. Mexico: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (CONACULTA) and Cineteca Nacional, 2000.

Cuarón, Carlos, and Alfonso Cuarón. Y tu mamá también. Mexico: Trilce Ediciones, 2001.

                                     Juan Carlos Grijalva