00:00While you were busy focusing on the Top Gun and Avatar sequels, among other Oscar contenders,
00:04you might have missed that a familiar trio of Mexican filmmakers are once again in the race as well,
00:10and we're taking a closer look.
00:11Hi everyone, and thank you for tuning in to FaceTime with Feinberg.
00:14I'm Scott Feinberg, THR's Executive Editor of Awards Coverage,
00:17and this is a video series on which I riff about something related to awards.
00:23Today, I'd like to highlight something that won't exactly come as a surprise to anyone
00:27who's been paying attention to the world of cinema in the 21st century, but is remarkable nonetheless.
00:32The fact that a trio of filmmakers from Mexico, each born in the early 1960s,
00:37and affectionately known as the Three Amigos, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro,
00:41and Alejandro González-Zenorito, are all in serious Oscar contention yet again.
00:47Cuarón was one of the producers of Alice Rohralker's 37-minute Christmas-themed film,
00:51Le Pupil, which is streaming on Disney+, and which is shortlisted for
00:55and currently favored to win the Best Live Action Short Oscar.
01:00Del Toro and Iñárritu, meanwhile, are in contention for Netflix films.
01:04Del Toro directed a stop-motion version of Pinocchio that has also been shortlisted for several Oscars
01:09and is the favorite to win the Best Animated Feature Oscar.
01:13And Iñárritu, for the third time, each in a different decade, has had a film of his,
01:18in this case the semi-autobiographical Bardot,
01:21chosen to represent Mexico in the Best International Feature Oscar race.
01:24An honor twice previously bestowed on a Del Toro film and once on a Cuarón film.
01:29These three filmmakers, who happen to also be great friends and advise each other on their films,
01:34have been doing outstanding work for decades,
01:36going as far back as Del Toro's 1993 film Cronos,
01:40Iñárritu's 2000 film Amoris Peros,
01:42and Cuarón's 2001 film Itumama Tambien.
01:46But their profile exploded in 2006,
01:49when they each had a breakthrough film in Oscar contention at the same time for the first time.
01:53Cuarón, with Children of Men,
01:55Del Toro, with Pan's Labyrinth,
01:57and Iñárritu, with Babel.
01:59Each of which, perhaps not coincidentally,
02:02dealt with people's struggles to communicate with each other.
02:05Then, in a period of just six years, spanning 2014 through 2019,
02:10they collectively claimed five Best Director Oscars.
02:14Cuarón, for Gravity and Roma,
02:16Iñárritu, for Birdman and the Revenant,
02:18in consecutive years,
02:19and Del Toro, for The Shape of Water.
02:21Two of those films, Birdman and The Shape of Water,
02:25were also chosen as the best picture of their respective years,
02:28adding another Oscar to the tallies of Del Toro and Iñárritu.
02:32And then, in 2017,
02:34Iñárritu was awarded an honorary Oscar
02:36for his virtual reality installation that debuted that same year,
02:39Carne y Arena.
02:40The fact that this trio of filmmakers has done so much excellent work at the same time,
02:46and that that time also happens to be a period when anti-Mexican immigrant sentiment
02:49has exploded across America,
02:52is nothing short of remarkable,
02:54and is, I think, worth cheering.
02:56In June 2015,
02:57Donald Trump infamously declared in the speech,
03:00announcing his presidential campaign,
03:01Given the work of the Three Amigos,
03:19among plenty else,
03:20I beg to differ.
03:22One additional note,
03:23the trio,
03:23who were celebrated on January 6th
03:25at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures,
03:27also sat down with me for a recent episode of my THR podcast,
03:30Awards Chatter.
03:31And I'd encourage you to check out that episode,
03:33as well as the episodes that I recorded with each of them individually
03:36over the last few years.
03:38They are not only incredible filmmakers,
03:40but also fascinating guys.
03:42For The Hollywood Reporter,
03:43I'm Scott Feinberg,
03:44and this has been FaceTime with Feinberg.
03:50I'm Scott Feinberg.
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