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| In a year of #OscarsSoWhite, a Mexican film-maker quietly dominates the Academy Awards | In a year of #OscarsSoWhite, a Mexican film-maker quietly dominates the Academy Awards |
| (6 months later) | |
| There’s been a lot of talk since the Oscar nominations were announced, in January, about the Academy Awards’ – and Hollywood’s – problems with diversity; and while the figures on ethnic minority and women’s participation in the film industry make for grim reading, there is at least one area where progress has been made. As Mexican film-maker Alejandro González Iñárritu waits to find out if he is the first person since Joseph L Mankiewicz to win the best director Oscar two years in a row, the Latino presence at Hollywood’s very top table is significant, in quality if not quantity. | There’s been a lot of talk since the Oscar nominations were announced, in January, about the Academy Awards’ – and Hollywood’s – problems with diversity; and while the figures on ethnic minority and women’s participation in the film industry make for grim reading, there is at least one area where progress has been made. As Mexican film-maker Alejandro González Iñárritu waits to find out if he is the first person since Joseph L Mankiewicz to win the best director Oscar two years in a row, the Latino presence at Hollywood’s very top table is significant, in quality if not quantity. |
| As director of The Revenant, which leads the total number of nominations for Sunday’s ceremony with 12 (including best picture, best actor for Leonardo DiCaprio, and best supporting actor for Tom Hardy), Iñárritu is currently exerting an Oscar stranglehold for the second year in succession, after Birdman won four Academy Awards (including best picture and best director for Iñárritu) at the 2015 edition. Reinforcing the Latino ascendancy in Hollywood, another Mexican, Alfonso Cuarón, won the best director award in 2014, for Gravity; while cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who has collaborated with both Cuarón and Iñárritu, could well win his third Oscar in a row for The Revenant, having won for both Gravity and Birdman. | As director of The Revenant, which leads the total number of nominations for Sunday’s ceremony with 12 (including best picture, best actor for Leonardo DiCaprio, and best supporting actor for Tom Hardy), Iñárritu is currently exerting an Oscar stranglehold for the second year in succession, after Birdman won four Academy Awards (including best picture and best director for Iñárritu) at the 2015 edition. Reinforcing the Latino ascendancy in Hollywood, another Mexican, Alfonso Cuarón, won the best director award in 2014, for Gravity; while cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who has collaborated with both Cuarón and Iñárritu, could well win his third Oscar in a row for The Revenant, having won for both Gravity and Birdman. |
| This is not to underplay the problems facing Latinos in the film industry: the recent Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity in Entertainment concluded that only 5.8% of actors in Hollywood films were identifiably Hispanic/Latino, as compared to 16.3% of the actual US population. The wider political climate, which saw Iñárritu chastise presidential candidate Donald Trump for xenophobic remarks, also makes the issue more urgent. But the ascendancy of a clutch of gifted Mexican film-makers, with an ability to craft films that appeal to the broad range of mainstream Oscar voters, is a remarkable development. | This is not to underplay the problems facing Latinos in the film industry: the recent Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity in Entertainment concluded that only 5.8% of actors in Hollywood films were identifiably Hispanic/Latino, as compared to 16.3% of the actual US population. The wider political climate, which saw Iñárritu chastise presidential candidate Donald Trump for xenophobic remarks, also makes the issue more urgent. But the ascendancy of a clutch of gifted Mexican film-makers, with an ability to craft films that appeal to the broad range of mainstream Oscar voters, is a remarkable development. |
| Iñárritu’s early career hardly suggested he would arrive at this position. His debut feature, Amores Perros, was released in 2000, and was considered a key part of “la buena onda” – the “good wave” – of Latin American cinema that encompassed Brazilian films such as Walter Salles’ Central Station and Fernando Meirelles’ City of God, as well as Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También. (Guillermo del Toro, the third high-profile Mexican film-maker to successfully cross over to Hollywood, has come through a parallel route of genre and fantasy film-making: his best Oscar performance was winning three for Pan’s Labyrinth in 2007.) Despite his determinedly arthouse credentials, established via a series of thematically complex and stylistically elevated films, Iñárritu quickly switched to English-language film-making and employed big name American actors: Sean Penn in 21 Grams (2003) and Brad Pitt in Babel (2006). | Iñárritu’s early career hardly suggested he would arrive at this position. His debut feature, Amores Perros, was released in 2000, and was considered a key part of “la buena onda” – the “good wave” – of Latin American cinema that encompassed Brazilian films such as Walter Salles’ Central Station and Fernando Meirelles’ City of God, as well as Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También. (Guillermo del Toro, the third high-profile Mexican film-maker to successfully cross over to Hollywood, has come through a parallel route of genre and fantasy film-making: his best Oscar performance was winning three for Pan’s Labyrinth in 2007.) Despite his determinedly arthouse credentials, established via a series of thematically complex and stylistically elevated films, Iñárritu quickly switched to English-language film-making and employed big name American actors: Sean Penn in 21 Grams (2003) and Brad Pitt in Babel (2006). |
| Katey Rich, Hollywood editor of Vanity Fair, says that Iñárritu’s current status as an Oscar frontrunner is down to the fact that “he tends to pick challenging, visually exceptional projects, which means they are guaranteed to receive Academy attention. And he’s chosen to work with actors who also guarantee that kind of attention, while bringing out exceptional performances in them. Both Birdman and The Revenant are incredible technical accomplishments, which contributed greatly to their success.” | Katey Rich, Hollywood editor of Vanity Fair, says that Iñárritu’s current status as an Oscar frontrunner is down to the fact that “he tends to pick challenging, visually exceptional projects, which means they are guaranteed to receive Academy attention. And he’s chosen to work with actors who also guarantee that kind of attention, while bringing out exceptional performances in them. Both Birdman and The Revenant are incredible technical accomplishments, which contributed greatly to their success.” |
| Eugene Hernandez, deputy director of the influential Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York says: “Win or lose, what Iñárritu has achieved is significant ... While many directors and actors have embraced work on smaller screens in recent years, Iñárritu is showing audiences and the industry that the big screen still matters. And his peers have responded by celebrating these efforts.” | Eugene Hernandez, deputy director of the influential Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York says: “Win or lose, what Iñárritu has achieved is significant ... While many directors and actors have embraced work on smaller screens in recent years, Iñárritu is showing audiences and the industry that the big screen still matters. And his peers have responded by celebrating these efforts.” |
| The acceptance of Mexican film-makers at the highest levels in Hollywood has no doubt also been buoyed by American cinema’s interest in cross-border themes, or “Tex-Mex” cinema – from the work of San Antonio-born Mexican-American director Robert Rodriguez, who made his name with Latino-inflected films such as El Mariachi and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, to more recent films such as the acclaimed thriller Sicario. However, the numbers of US-born Latinos actually nominated for Oscars remains poor, with only eight in total and none as best director. Benicio del Toro, arguably the most high-profile Latino actor in Hollywood, was born in Puerto Rico, a US territory, and has since also acquired Spanish citizenship. | The acceptance of Mexican film-makers at the highest levels in Hollywood has no doubt also been buoyed by American cinema’s interest in cross-border themes, or “Tex-Mex” cinema – from the work of San Antonio-born Mexican-American director Robert Rodriguez, who made his name with Latino-inflected films such as El Mariachi and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, to more recent films such as the acclaimed thriller Sicario. However, the numbers of US-born Latinos actually nominated for Oscars remains poor, with only eight in total and none as best director. Benicio del Toro, arguably the most high-profile Latino actor in Hollywood, was born in Puerto Rico, a US territory, and has since also acquired Spanish citizenship. |
| Hernandez is confident, however, that Iñnáritu’s success, and that of his compatriots, can play its part in the mood of change in Hollywood. “The voices speaking out in support of creating and celebrating a more inclusive entertainment industry are surely buoyed by the success of Iñnáritu, Cuarón and Lubezki [and are] determined to build on their success by ensuring that opportunities will emerge for more American women and people of colour. | Hernandez is confident, however, that Iñnáritu’s success, and that of his compatriots, can play its part in the mood of change in Hollywood. “The voices speaking out in support of creating and celebrating a more inclusive entertainment industry are surely buoyed by the success of Iñnáritu, Cuarón and Lubezki [and are] determined to build on their success by ensuring that opportunities will emerge for more American women and people of colour. |
| “This can be a tremendous moment of opportunity if Hollywood chooses to fully embrace it.” | “This can be a tremendous moment of opportunity if Hollywood chooses to fully embrace it.” |