Research Guides: Latinx and Chicanx Film and Television: Selected Filmmakers and Films

Disclaimer/Scope

Due to the fluidity of identity and labels, some of the following filmmakers might have a different relationship to specific terminology and might not identify as Chicanx or Latinx-American. While some of the directors were born outside of the United States, their films have received Hollywood and U.S.-based funding or distribution, thus qualifying their works to be included in the list.

Alejandro González Iñárritu Alejandro González Iñárritu (ih-nyar-ee-too), born August 15th, 1963, is a Mexican film director. González Iñárritu is the first Mexican director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and by the Directors Guild of America for Best Director. He is also the first Mexican-born director to have won the Prix de la mise en scene or best director award at Cannes (2006), the second one being Carlos Reygadas in 2012. His six feature films, 'Amores Perros' (2000), '21 Grams' (2003), 'Babel' (2006), 'Biutiful' (2010), 'Birdman' (2014) and 'The Revenant' (2015), have gained critical acclaim world-wide including two Academy Award nominations. Alejandro González Iñárritu was born in Mexico City.
Alfonso Cuarón Alfonso Cuarón Orozco, born 28 November 196, is a Mexican filmmaker. He is known for directing films in a variety of genres, including the family drama A Little Princess (1995), the romantic drama Great Expectations (1998), the coming of age road film Y tu mamá también (2001), the fantasy film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), science fiction films such as Children of Men (2006) and Gravity (2013) and the semi-autobiographical drama Roma (2018).
Gregory Nava Gregory Nava was born on 10 April 1949 in San Diego, California, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Selena (1997). Nava was born in San Diego, of Mexican and Basque heritage. Nava graduated from St. Augustine High School in San Diego and went on to attend film school at UCLA where he earned an MFA in 1976. At UCLA he directed the short film The Journal of Diego Rodriguez Silva (based on the life of García Lorca), and for this work, won the Best Dramatic Film Award at the National Student Film Festival.
Guillermo Del Toro Guillermo del Toro was born October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He is a recipient of three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, and an Emmy Award. Throughout his career, del Toro has shifted between Spanish-language films and English-language films
Lourdes Portillo Lourdes Portillo was born in 1944 in Mexico. She is an internationally acclaimed film director whose work focuses on highlighting Latin American, Mexican, and Chicano/a experiences and denouncing injustice for many Latina identities for over forty years. Her hybrid filmmaking style as a visual artist, investigative journalist, and activist focuses on the borders between two or more cultures and cinematic traditions, mixing in various cinematic styles into her films.
Luis Valdez Acknowledged as the founder of modern Chicano theatre and film, Luis Valdez was born to migrant farm workers Francisco and Armida Valdez and spent his early life traveling with the family, working in the fields himself. He eventually found himself at San Jose State College, where his play "The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa" was staged in 1964. He later joined the United Farm Workers and staged improvisational theatre with the help of union actors to further their causes. This work lead to the formation of his El Teatro Campesino, which produced most of Valdez' early plays in both the US and Europe. His account of racism in 1940s Los Angeles, Zoot Suit (1981), was released in 1982 to less than critical acclaim. Valdez continued to write and direct throughout the period; his film La Bamba (1987), the tragic story of Chicano singer Ritchie Valens, proved wildly successful and launched the screen careers of Lou Diamond Phillips and Esai Morales. He continues to travel extensively while remaining true to his Chicano theatrical roots.
María Novaro Novaro is a Mexican film director. She was among the first generation of female filmmakers to graduate from a film school in Mexico. She has made five feature films and fourteen short films. Within the Mexican film industry, she has been a cinematographer, sound mixer, director, screenwriter and editor. Today, Novaro is one of the best known Mexican filmmakers to come out of the New Mexican Cinema.
Patricia Cardoso Patricia Cardoso is an award-winning director, writer, and producer. She was the first Latinx woman to receive a Sundance Audience Award and a Student Academy Award®. Cardoso's feature film, "Real Women Have Curves," was a box office and critical success and has become a landmark of Latinx cinema. She is a graduate of UCLA's film school and was director of Sundance's Latin American program for five years. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
Patricia Riggen Riggen was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco. She is best known for directing the 2007 film Under the Same Moon and the 2011 Disney Channel original film Lemonade Mouth.
Ramón Menéndez Ramón Menéndez (born January 21, 1950) is a Cuban-American film director and screenwriter. He is best known for writing and directing the 1988 film Stand and Deliver. Menéndez is a native of Cuba and grew up in California. He is an alumnus of San Francisco State University and UCLA Film School.
Robert Rodriguez Robert Rodriguez stands alone as the most successful U.S. Latino filmmaker today, whose work has single-handedly brought U.S. Latino filmmaking into the mainstream of twenty-first-century global cinema. Rodriguez is a prolific (eighteen films in twenty-one years) and all-encompassing filmmaker who has scripted, directed, shot, edited, and scored nearly all his films since his first breakout success, El Mariachi, in 1992. With new films constantly coming out and the launch of his El Rey Network television channel, he receives unceasing coverage in the entertainment media, but systematic scholarly study of Rodriguez's films is only just beginning.