Over the years, there has been some impressive and diverse talent showcased internationally for the sake of good storytelling in cinema. Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa made the film ‘The Seven Samurai,’ which inspired an American film director to make ‘The Magnificent Seven.’ African-American film director Spike Lee has received mainstream recognition for his films, such as ‘She’s Gotta Have It,’ ‘Malcolm X,’ and Oscar-winning hit ‘BlacKkKlansman,’ which reminds his audiences of the history and modern-day struggles of the average African-American. In 2019, there was even recognition of the South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho, who wrote and directed the four-time Academy Award-winning film ‘Parasite,’ a dark comedy thriller drama that tells a story about a poor South Korean family who takes advantage of a wealthy family. Amidst this international talent, three Mexican filmmakers, Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón, and Alejandro González Iñárritu, have earned the nickname the ‘Three Amigos’ for their groundbreaking contributions to cinema.
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However, in the past three decades, there have been three Mexican movie directors who have made a poignant mark in the filmmaking world. Whether directing an independent film or mainstream hits, the filmmakers tend to make their projects personal and mind-blowing – whether their target demographic is a cinephile or the average moviegoer. The three filmmakers, Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón, and Alejandro González Iñárritu, are the filmmaking auteurs who have gathered a solid fan base and have received recognition as executive producers, granting them the power to tackle more diverse projects. As their careers grow, so does their taste of artistic direction, while some of them still keep their trademark details that would make their audience recognize that it is their work. Film buffs and critics will never forget their works and continue to follow their works very closely.
Guillermo del Toro and his Monster Movies
Ever since the 1990s, Guillermo del Toro has made his fame by making fantasy movies that involve creatures. Before he made his first feature, he created ten short films. Only two of them are available to be seen to the public: ‘Doña Lupe’ and ‘Geometria.’ Around 1993, he collaborated with Ron Perlman for the first time in his directorial debut, Cronos, a Mexican horror movie that concentrates on an antique dealer who stumbles across a device that grants him youth, immortality, and the thirst for blood. It was greatly received by critics.
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The executive producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein took notice and decided to hire him for the 1997 sci-fi/horror film ‘Mimic.’ Even though ‘Mimic’ had helped him to receive mainstream recognition, Guillermo returned to the independent horror genre by making ‘The Devil’s Backbone,’ a ghost story that took place at the end of the Spanish Civil War. He also returned to direct a mainstream action flick, ‘Blade II.’ This gave del Toro the credibility to write and direct his comic book-based movie, ‘Hellboy.’ Unlike ‘Mimic,’ he didn’t get studio interference and managed to present his own vision with the superhero.
Two years later, he released 2006’s critically-acclaimed hit, ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ – a fantasy that moved audiences and film critics because of its dark and gothic aesthetic of telling a fairy tale that is intended for adults due to the graphic violence. It takes place in Spain, 1944, where the young stepdaughter of a malicious army captain goes into a strange but fascinating dream world, where she is discovered to be a reincarnation of a princess who existed many years ago. The film received six Oscar nominations and won three awards.
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In 2008, he returned to make the sequel ‘Hellboy II: The Golden Army,’ which proved to be a worthy sequel. In 2013, Guillermo released another blockbuster hit, ‘Pacific Rim,’ which featured giant robots operated by human beings that are sent to destroy giant sea creatures. It proved to be a critical success at the box office. Two years later, he released a gothic horror flick, ‘Crimson Peak.’ The film was highly praised for its production values, direction, and performances.
‘The Shape of Water’ was well appreciated by critics and audiences in 2017. It gave homage to ‘The Creature of the Black Lagoon’ since the monster of the movie resembles the iconic creature. Instead of antagonizing the monster, it gave a romanticized take on it. It’s a sci-fi romance that concentrates on a female mute janitor who falls in love with a creature held captive in a government laboratory. ‘The Shape of Water’ received 13 nominations and took home four Oscar wins, including for Best Picture and Best Director.
In 2021, del Toro released ‘Nightmare Alley,’ a film noir that focused on a tricky carnival worker (played by Bradley Cooper) who will do anything to boost his career. However, he encounters a manipulative psychologist who plans on exposing him. The film is the second adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham’s novel. It is not intended to be a remake of the 1947 film. This was del Toro’s first attempt at making something entirely new and without adding supernatural elements to it. The film received four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Guillermo del Toro, no stranger to timeless, emotionally resonant storytelling, is set to release Frankenstein in late 2025, a gothic re-imagining of Mary Shelley’s novel that premieres at Venice, screens in Toronto, hits theaters briefly, and streams on Netflix in November. He is also adapting Boy in the Iron Box with Chuck Hogan, with filming slated to begin in October 2025, likely arriving in 2026–27.
Alfonso Cuarón and His Shifting Relationship with Making Independent and Mainstream Films
Before he became a prestigious director, Cuaron started working on television in Mexico as a technician and, later, a director. Eventually, he landed on making his directorial debut, ‘Solo Con Tu Pareja.’ His first film concentrates on a womanizer who is falsely diagnosed with AIDS by a jealous nurse, who happens to be his lover. This resulted in him attempting to commit suicide. Along the way, he finds a woman who is also suicidal, as he is. The film was also his first collaboration with ambitious cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki.
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In 1995, he directed his first American feature and adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel ‘A Little Princess.’ Three years later, he also made a second literary adaptation by making a contemporized version of Charles Dickens’s novel ‘Great Expectations.’
Once again, Alfonso Cuarón returned to Mexico to work on the Mexican independent film ‘Y Tu Mamá También,’ which was released in 2001. It was a raunchy, funny, and touching coming-of-age road movie about two sexually active teenagers (played by Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna) who attempt to seduce an older woman (played by Maribel Verdu) by taking her to a beach. The film was praised for the narration, which gave depth to the characters’ backgrounds and Mexico’s political and economic realities. The film was a box-office hit in Mexico and abroad. Alfonso Cuarón and co-writer and brother Carlos Cuarón received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Three years later, Cuarón directed ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,’ the third installment of J.K. Rowling’s adapted novel series. The director did a splendid job of changing to a darker tone while still having a light approach to the adaptation. The author even enjoyed Cuarón’s creative endeavor for the third installment and said it was her personal favorite from the series at the time. In 2006, Cuarón’s sixth film, ‘Children of Men’, was released. It was an adaptation of a P. D. James novel. The story takes place in a dystopian London in the year 2027. The film was praised for Emmanuel Lubezki’s long-take scenes (as he experimented with Cuarón’s past three films), especially regarding the film’s ultra-violent action scenes. ‘Children of Men’ received three Academy Award nominations: Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, and Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (with other colleagues).
Cuaron released the 2013 film ‘Gravity,’ a sci-fi suspense thriller starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as two astronauts who work together to return to Earth after an accident leaves them stranded in space. The film received 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Achievement in Production Design. However, ‘Gravity’ won seven of them for the cinematography, directing (making Cuarón the first Hispanic and Mexican to win the Academy Award for Best Director), editing (which Cuarón won his second award along with Mark Sanger), score, sound editing, sound mixing, and visual effects. ‘Gravity’ proved to be a favorite for critics, audiences, and the Academy Awards season.
After a five-year hiatus, the director released his most personal film, ‘Roma.’ The story is based on Liboria “Libo” Rodriguez, the real-life nanny who looked after Alfonso Cuarón when he was a child. Hence, the story focuses on Cleo, a maid for a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s. This time, Emmanuel Lubezki was not the cinematographer for the director. Cuarón was able to fill the role of director of photography and won an Academy Award for it. He also won an Oscar for his directing, and the film won the award for Best Foreign Language Film of the year. He has also remained active behind the camera: in March 2025, Netflix released Revelations, a South Korean mystery thriller produced by him.
Alejandro González Iñárritu and His Critically Acclaimed Movies
Alejandro González Iñárritu has been an innovative film director by telling non-linear stories in the 2000s. It will remind some of Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction,’ but without the dark humor. In 2000, the crime-drama film ‘Amores Perros’ was released. It told the story about a terrifying car accident that connects three stories involving a young dog owner, a famous actress, and a mysterious hitman. It was nominated for Best Foreign Film. In 2003, his film ‘21 Grams’ was released. It is another story that also deals with a car accident. Only this time, it is caused by a born-again ex-con (played by Benicio del Toro) and involves a gravely ill mathematician (played by Sean Penn) and a grief-stricken mother (played by Naomi Watts). Both Naomi Watts and Benicio del Toro received Oscar nominations for their performances.
Three years later, ‘Babel’ was released in 2006. The story deals with an accident that brings together four groups of people on three different continents: a Moroccan family who herds goats, an American couple vacationing in Morocco, a deaf Japanese teenager and her father, and a Mexican nanny who babysits two American children across the border without the consent of the parents. Once again, the director was able to wow the audiences with a movie with multiple stories, and the film received six Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture.
In 2010, he finally got around to doing a film with a linear storyline called ‘Biutiful.’ It stars Javier Bardem as Uxbal, a single father who is slowly dying of prostate cancer and has a telepathic connection to the dead. He also makes his money off the labor of illegal immigrants in Barcelona, Spain. The film might have received one Oscar nomination because of Javier Bardem’s performance; it was a favorite amongst critics.
Around 2014, he released the movie ‘Birdman,’ which starred Michael Keaton as the lead character, Riggan Thomson. Riggan, a has-been superhero actor, attempts to recover his diminishing career by writing, directing, and acting in a Broadway production. The movie had astonished audiences since cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and the director intended the movie to look as though it were filmed in one shot, despite the fact that there are sixteen cuts visible in the movie. Emmanuel eventually won the Oscar for cinematography, and Inarritu won for Best Picture (shared by other colleagues), Director, and Best Writing, Original Screenplay (along with other writers).
The following year, Lubezki and Iñárritu teamed up again to make the film ‘The Revenant.’ It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass, a frontiersman in the 1920s who fights to survive from the dangers of the wilderness after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by his own hunting team members. The movie was praised for Lubezki’s cinematography. DiCaprio’s performance was also well-received, and he finally got his long-awaited Oscar win for it. Iñárritu also won his second Oscar for directing. Alejandro González Iñárritu is also making a return: his upcoming English-language feature starring Tom Cruise and an acclaimed ensemble has finished production in mid-2025 and is scheduled for October 2, 2026, release via Warner Bros.
By Marco Castaneda
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Marco Castaneda is a graduate student at the California State University, Los Angeles. He is currently pursuing his Master of Fine Arts Degree in Television, Film, and Theatre, and expects to graduate in the Spring of 2023. He has a strong passion for creating stories as well as reading them. Marco believes that art helps people to give a unique perspective of our lives and the lives of others. He is also currently a substitute teacher for K-12th grade and hopes to teach students how to use their creativity through all aspects and subjects of their lives and not to be afraid of using their talents.
Marco Castaneda is a graduate student at the California State University, Los Angeles. He is currently pursuing his Master of Fine Arts Degree in Television, Film, and Theatre, and expects to graduate in the Spring of 2023. He has a strong passion for creating stories as well as reading them. Marco believes that art helps people to give a unique perspective of our lives and the lives of others. He is also currently a substitute teacher for K-12th grade and hopes to teach students how to use their creativity through all aspects and subjects of their lives and not to be afraid of using their talents.
