Mexican director Inarritu to receive Special Award Oscar
Jochen Kürten jt
November 10, 2017
Triumph after triumph — that's Inarritu's career in a nutshell. He was presented with a special award for his groundbreaking virtual reality experience movie "Carne y Arena."
Image: Ugo Dalla Porta
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Cult works by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inárritu
Triumph after triumph — that's Inárritu's career in a nutshell. Now receiving a special award for his groundbreaking virtual reality experience movie "Carne y Arena," here's a look back at his best works.
Image: Ugo Dalla Porta
An innovator and visionary
Alejandro G. Inárritu will receive the rare Special Award Oscar on November 11 at the Governors Award gala. The prize recognizes the cinematic innovation of Inárritu's virtual reality film "Carne y Arena," which tells the story of Mexican refugees crossing the US border. According to the Academy, the work "opened new doors of cinematic perception."
Image: Ugo Dalla Porta
Inárritu takes viewers to other worlds
In "Carne y Arena," the viewers (or participants) experience scenes from the lives of Mexican refugees. The VR film conveys a realistic visual and acoustic impression, setting participants in the middle of dangerous situations. "Carne y Arena" is not the first project for which the director innovated with form.
Image: 2015 Twentieth Century Fox
Leonardo DiCaprio fights for survival
Inárritu's most recent feature film, "The Revenant," was released in 2015. The critically-acclaimed work is a semi-biographical epic western describing frontiersman Hugh Glass' experiences in 1823. While exploring the uncharted wilderness, Glass deals with life-threatening injuries from a brutal bear attack and develops extreme survival skills to find a way back to civilization.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/20th Century Fox
Dogs, love affairs and awards
His directorial debut, "Amores Perros" (2000), was a considerable success. The feature film tells the hardships of life in Mexico City through three separate storylines that come together through a car accident. The movie won two awards at the Cannes Festival and subsequently numerous other international awards.
Image: Imago/Entertainment Pictures
How much does a soul weigh?
Inárritu's second feature film, "21 Grams" (2003), confirmed the visionary ambitions of the up-and-coming director. The drama, starring Sean Penn in the role of a patient after a heart surgery, features an unconventional fragmented narrative form and a shocking conclusion.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Experimenting with Hollywood stars
The following, critically-acclaimed film "Babel" (2006), left much of the audience puzzled for its frequently broken narrative construction. Despite the experimental nature of the film, Inárritu, then already a star, did not have to persuade big Hollywood names to work with him. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett joined the cast immediately.
Image: picture alliance/kpa
A story from Barcelona's underground
With "Biutiful" (2010), Inárritu returned to conventional storytelling. The movie tells the story of professional criminal Uxbal, played by Javier Bardem. A devoted father with compassion for the workers he exploits, he tries to get his affairs in order before he dies of cancer.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The triumphant 'Birdman'
Even though Inárritu was already a superstar before "Birdman," the 2014 movie secured his position among the Hollywood elite. The satiric story about a worn-out movie star portrayed by Michael Keaton was made to appear like a one-shot sequence. It won four Oscars.
Image: 20th Century Fox/dpa
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The Mexican director ("Birdman," "The Revenant") received the prize at a gala event in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, French director Agnes Varda, independent filmmaker Charles Burnett and cinematographer Owen Roizman were given Honorary Oscars for their lifetime achievements at the Governors Awards ceremony.
The Special Award Oscar is exceptional because it is not awarded annually, like the others. A mere 18 Special Award Oscars have been granted in the 90-year-history of the Academy Awards, the last one given out in 1996 in recognition of John Lasseter's "Toy Story," the first fully computer-generated feature film.
A seven-minute-long authentic experience
The Academy's committee agreed to honor Inarritu's latest project "Carne y Arena" ("Meat and Sand"), which premiered during this year's Cannes festival. The virtual reality project plunges "viewers into the harsh life of an immigrant" thanks to VR glasses that allow participants to experience the seven-minute narrative first-hand.
The setting of "Carne y Arena"Image: Emmanuel Lubezki
The calls for help by desperate Mexicans trying to cross the border to the US and the barking of the dogs unleashed by border guards can be heard via headphones.
To make the whole thing even more authentic, visitors walk barefoot over a floor covered with sand and stones.
The Academy said it recognizes its visionary and powerful experience in storytelling: "The Governors of the Academy are proud to present a special Oscar to Carne y Arena, in which Alejandro Inarritu and his cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki have opened for us new doors of cinematic perception," said Academy president John Bailey.
"It is a deeply emotional and physically immersive venture into the world of migrants crossing the desert of the American southwest in early dawn light. More than even a creative breakthrough in the still emerging form of virtual reality, it viscerally connects us to the hot-button political and social realities of the US-Mexico border," he added.
Alejandro González Iñárritu on the set of "Carne y Arena"Image: Chachi Ramirez
The film can be currently experienced in Milan at Fondazione Prada, which co-created the project, and at Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Tlatelolco Museum in Mexico City.
As a director, producer and screenwriter, Inarritu has won several Oscar awards and two Golden Globes and a Directors Guild of America award.
