10 June 2008
Young Filmmaker - Alfonso Cuarón
Born in Mexico in 1961, Alfonso Cuarón studied film in Mexico then gained experience working with English-language films being shot in Mexico. Over the years he has made a number of films that were adapted from literature, from the children's classic The Little Princess and Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. In 2007 two of his films were widely heralded: Pan's Labyrinth, which he produced, and Children of Men (also based on a novel), which he cowrote and directed. Pan's Labyrinth was nominated in several categories for Academy and BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards, as well as others, winning several awards, and Children of Men won several awards for Cuarón in both writing and directing. Pan's Labyrinth was produced through his production company, Esperanto Films. Cuarón is often celebrated with friends and countrymen Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu, who helped bring Mexico's contributions to contemporary world cinema to global audiences. There's no confirmation yet from the studios, but there is talk of Cuarón's returning to the land of Harry Potter to direct the final film of the series. He is reported to have said that working on his first Harry Potter film was a very happy two years, and he would be glad to revisit the experience, depending on the content of the as-yet-unpublished volume.
From the June 2007 edition of eJournal USA.
