Babel; About the filmmakers

Alejandro González Iñárritu (Director / Producer)

Born in Mexico City in 1963, Alejandro González Iñárritu directed and produced his debut feature film in 2000, Amores Perros, which was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film and received over 60 prizes becoming the most awarded film around the world in that year. Iñárritu’s follow-up film, 21 Grams (2003), which he conceived, directed and produced, starred Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, and Naomi Watts. Both Del Toro and Watts received Oscar nominations for their roles in the film and Penn won the Jury Prize for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. In May 2006 Iñárritu completed his third feature film Babel, which concluded his trilogy and earned him the Best Director Award at the 59th Cannes Film Festival. Iñárritu also wrote, directed and produced two short films, Powder Keg (2001) and Darkness (2002), which was part of the collective feature film 11’09”01. He now lives in Los Angeles with his wife María Eladia Hagerman and their two children María Eladia and Eliseo.

Guillermo Arriaga (Writer)

Known for his complex narrative structures, intense stories and characters full of contradictions and humanity, Guillermo Arriaga penned the original screenplays for 21 GRAMS and AMORES PERROS and served as associate producer on both films. Arriaga won the Golden Palm for Best Screenplay at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival for THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA, a film helmed by Tommy Lee Jones, in which Arriaga also starred. Most recently, he completed the screen adaptation of EL BUFALO DE LA NOCHE, based on his novel of the same name, and will serve as producer on the feature film. Arriaga is the author of three novels, Guillotine Squad, A Sweet Scent of Death and The Night Buffalo, and one book of short stories entitled Retorno 201. His writings, which appear in many languages, are highly praised by critics and audiences worldwide.

Born and raised in Mexico City, Arriaga has also directed, produced and written short films, documentaries, television series, radio and television commercials and has been a college professor for more than 25 years.

Jon Kilik (Producer)

As one of NYC’s top independent producers, Jon Kilik has collaborated with a wide range of auteur filmmakers. He has been a producer on twelve of Spike Lee’s films, in a collaboration that dates back to Do The Right Thing. Among their subsequent films together have been Malcolm X, Clockers, He Got Game and 25th Hour.

Mr. Kilik has produced two films directed by Tim Robbins, the Academy Award-winning Dead Man Walking; and the ambitious journey into the NYC theater world of the 1930’s, Cradle Will Rock. He has also produced two films directed by Julian Schnabel, Basquiat (starring Jeffrey Wright as artist Jean-Michel Basquiat); and Before Night Falls, for which Javier Bardem earned an Academy Award® nomination for Best Actor.

Mr. Kilik’s other films as producer include Robert DeNiro’s A Bronx Tale; Gary Ross’ award-winning Pleasantville; Ed Harris’ Academy Award®-winner Pollock; Chris Eyre’s Skins; Oliver Stone’s Alexander; and Jim Jarmusch’s Cannes Grand Prix winner, Broken Flowers.

Steve Golin (Producer)

Producer Steve Golin is founder and CEO of Anonymous Content, a multimedia development, production and talent management company. The company reunites Golin with such directors as David Fincher, Neil LaBute, David Kellogg, Gore Verbinski and Mark Romanek, all of whom worked with Golin through his previous venture, Propaganda Films. Golin has produced such feature films as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 50 First Dates, Bounce, Nurse Betty, Being John Malkovich, and In the Land of Women. Recently announced feature films which Golin is producing include Rendition, Dead I Well May Be and Pattern Recognition.

Golin has guided the company’s commercial division into a leading developer and producer of spots and campaigns for Nike, Intel, Citibank, United Airlines, Ford, Audi, Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Its music video division has produced projects for Radiohead, Prince , Nine Inch Nails, Jay-Z and Beck, among others.

Previously, as co-founder and chairman of Propaganda Films, Golin helped develop such filmmakers as Michael Bay, Spike Jonze, Dom Sena, Simon West and Antoine Fuqua. He produced such films as Return to Paradise, A Thousand Acres, The Game, The Portrait of a Lady, Sleepers, Truth or Dare, and Wild at Heart, Golin also oversaw the development and production of
acclaimed and popular television series as “Beverly Hills 90210,” “Twin Peaks” and “Tales of the City.” Golin helped build Propaganda into the largest music video and commercial production company in the world, winning more MTV Video Awards and Cannes Palme d’Or Awards than any other production company for artists including The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bonnie Raitt, George Michael and Madonna.

Rodrigo Prieto. ASC, AMC (Director of Photography)

Rodrigo Prieto was born in Mexico City, where he studied at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica. He started his career as a Cinematographer on television commercials at the age of 21. He went on to shoot feature films, which included Daniel Gruener’s Sobrenatural, and Carlos Carrera’s Un Embrujo (Under A Spell) both of which were awarded Silver Ariel Awards for Best Cinematography (Mexican Academy Awards). Un Embrujo also took the Concha de Plata for best cinematography at the San Sebastian Film Festival in 1998. Shooting commercials, he met Alejandro González Iñárritu, who offered him to be the Cinematographer on his first feature: Amores Perros.

AmoRes perros brought cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto to the attention of the world film community. His work on the film brought him several honors, including another Silver Ariel Award and the Golden Frog Award at the Camerimage International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography.His subsequent films as cinematographer have included Michael Cristofer’s
Original Sin, Julie Taymor’s Frida (for which he was nominated by his peers, for the American Society of Cinematographers Award), Curtis Hanson’s 8 Mile, Spike Lee’s 25th Hour, and Mr. Iñárritu’s award-winning Focus Features release 21 Grams, as well as their latest collaboration, Babel.

Mr. Prieto traveled to Cuba with director Oliver Stone to shoot Comandante, the documentary on Fidel Castro. The two then went to the Middle East to film a documentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Persona Non Grata. Their next project together was the epic Alexander, for which Mr. Prieto was honored with the Silver Frog Award at the Camerimage International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography.

Prieto next collaborated with director Ang Lee on Brokeback Mountain. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, as well as the BAFTA and American Society of Cinematographers awards. He won Best Cinematography for Brokeback Mountain for the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 2006; the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association 2005; the Florida Film Critics Circle Award 2006, and the Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards 2005. He is currently working on Ang Lee’s next film in China: Lust, Caution.

Brigitte Broch (Production Designer)

Award-winning Production Designer Brigitte Broch has worked with González Iñárritu on his previous films, Amores Perros and 21 Grams. She has served as production designer on the films Amapola, Lucia, Lucia, Real Women Have Curves and The Hire, Powder Keg. The German-born Broch, who lives and works in her adopted hometown of Mexico City, won an Academy Award® for “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” for Moulin Rouge! and was nominated for an Oscar® in the same category for her work on Romeo & Juliet (1996). She was production designer on the miniseries “Fidel” and was nominated won a Silver Ariel in Mexico for “Best Art Direction” for the feature film, Sexo, pudo y lagrimas. Her other film credits include Amber, La Hija de Puma, She Hate Me and Chronos.

Stephen Mirrione. A.C.E. (Editor)

Babel marks Mirrione’s second collaboration with director Alejandro González Iñárritu, winning Mirrione the Vulcain Artist-Technician Award at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.  His first film with González Iñárritu, 21 Grams, earned Mirrione a BAFTA nomination for editing in 2004.

In 2006, his work on George Clooney’s highly acclaimed Good Night, and Good Luck garnered Mirrione editing nominations from BAFTA and the American Cinema Editors.  He also edited Clooney’s directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

Mirrione received an Academy Award for editing Traffic, in 2001.  It was his first collaboration with director Steven Soderbergh, for whom he also edited Ocean’s Eleven and Ocean’s Twelve. Mirrione is currently editing Ocean’s Thirteen for Soderbergh.

Mirrione’s other editing credits include Gregory Jacobs’ Criminal, two films for director Jill Sprecher, Clockwaters and Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, as well as Doug Liman’s Swingers and Go.

Gustavo Santaolalla (Composer)

Acclaimed Composer Gustavo Santaolalla won his first Academy Award® for “Best Original Score” for his work on the film Brokeback Mountain. He was also nominated for two Golden Globe awards for Brokeback Mountain, one for “Best Original Score — Motion Picture” and for one for “Best Original Song-Motion Picture.” He won the award for “Best Original Song-Motion Picture.”

Santaolalla has scored both of González Iñárritu’s previous films, 21 Grams and Amores Perros, as well as such motion pictures as North Country, and The Motorcycle Diaries. One of Santaolalla’s songs was featured in Michael Mann’s The Insider. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Santaolalla won numerous awards for his work in The Motorcycle Diaries including a Silver Condor from the Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards for ” Best Music,” the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ “Film Music Award,” and a Clarin Entertainment Award.