Mexican film-makers’ fame has little to do with Mexico: analysts

MEXICAN film-makers are winning more Oscars, but their success owes much more to globalisation than it does to Mexico’s characteristics, analysts said. The country’s award-winning film-makers are not making Mexican movies.

Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu on Sunday took home his second Best Director Oscar for his latest movie, The Revenant.

Last year, he won Best Director and Best Picture for Birdman. In 2014, filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron became the first Mexican to win the Oscar for Best Director for Gravity. Guillermo del Toro has made a string of well-received movies and garnered an Oscar nomination for Pan’s Labyrinth in 2007.

All the three filmmakers, dubbed the Three Amigos, are Mexican, yet their successful movies in Hollywood are all English-language films marked by universal themes and tastes that transcend borders, cultures and regional idiosyncrasies.

Because the fame of the Three Amigos cast such a long shadow that many other talented Mexican film-makers are being overlooked, said an article in online film magazine Tribeca.

Why does Hollywood love Mexican filmmakers but not Mexican films?

“Prizes have generated more attention and enthusiasm for Mexican film-makers, but they haven’t been able to guarantee better distribution and exhibition for Mexican films,” said another article in online magazine Remezcla.

The apparent disconnection stems from the fact that today’s famed Mexican film-makers have embraced a transnational pop culture, while Mexican films have not. Yet, they deserve a wider distribution. – Xinhua