Best Directors Working Today (Latin America and the Caribbean)

Picked from directors who are Latin American or Caribbean by birth or upbringing or film in those countries regularly (at least 3 films in the region). Exceptions will be made for quality film-makers of Latin American or Caribbean descent who film stories in the United States of America or Canada about Latin Americans or Caribbeans. Or perhaps for directors not of Latin American or Caribbean descent or residence but who film about the diaspora. Stories about the children of immigrants in North America counted in a separate section.

To qualify I'm making it that the director has to release an excellent film (in my opinion) during the 21st century and I need to be able to find at least 3 excellent reference films. Same criteria as the previous lists.

13. Jose Padilha - Brazil

Directing Timespan : 2002- Present

Reference Films: Bus 174(2002); Tropa de Elite (2007); Secrets of the Tribe (2010)

12. Pablo Trapero - Argentina

Directing Timespan : 1990-present

Reference Films: El Bonaerense (2002);Familia Rodante (2004); Carancho (2010)

11.Karim Ainouz- Brazil

Directing Timespan: 1992-present

Reference Films: Madame Sata (2002); Praia do Futuro(2014); O Ceo de Suely( 2006)

10. Walter Salles -Brazil

Directing Timespan: 1991-present

Reference Films: Terra Estrangeira(Foreign Land) (1995); Central do Brasil (1998); Diarios de Motocicleta (2003)

9. Alejandro González Iñárritu - Mexico

Directing Timespan: 2000-present

Reference Films: Amores Perros (2000); 21 Grams (2001); Biutiful (2010)

8. Alfonso Cuarón - Mexico

Directing Timespan: 1990- Present

Reference Films: Y tu Mama Tambien (2001); Children of Men (2006); Solo con tu pareja( 1991); Gravity (2013)

7. Juan José Campanella- Argentina

Directing Timespan: 1979- present

Reference Films: El Hijo de la Novia (The son of the Bride) (2001); El Secreto de sus ojos (The Secret in their eyes) (2009); El mismo amor, la misma lluvia (1999)

6. Guillermo del Toro - Mexico

Directing Timespan: 1985 - Present

Reference Films: Cronos (1993); The Devil's Backbone (2001); Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

5. Andres Wood- Chile

Directing Timespan: 1997- Present

Reference Films: Machuca(2004); Violeta went to heaven (2011); La Fiebre del loco (1997)

4. Patricio Guzmán- Chile

Directing Timespan: 1968-Present

Reference Films: La Batalla de Chile (1975); Salvador Allende (2004); Nostalgia for the Light (2010)

3. Lucrecia Martel - Argentina

Directing Timespan : 1988- Present

Reference Films: La Cienaga (The Swamp) (2001); La Nina Santa (The Holy Girl) (2004); La mujer sin cabeza (The Headless Woman) (2008)

2. Carlos Reygadas- Mexico

Directing Timespan : 1999-present

Reference Films: Japon (2002); Stellet Lucht (2007); Post Tenebras Lux(2012)

1. Pablo Larrain - Chile

Directing Timespan: 2006 - present

Reference Films: No (2012); Tony Manero (2008); Post Morten (2010)

Oscar Predictions-Film Awards (i)

Best Director Most likely winner : Steven Spielberg for Lincoln. Leaving out Ben Affleck, Kathryn Bigelow and Quentin Tarantino pretty much made this Spielberg's to lose. And doesn't reflect too well on the Academy either. Backup Pick : David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook. The production company of Weinstein have been campaigning hard for this and it's a good film with the acting performances set up well. The thing about best director is it's the easiest award to give to someone the academy likes because it's ambiguous and the academy doesn't really love Russell. Most deserving : Michel Haneke for Amour. Haneke has the most carefully crafted film here. All in all it is definitely his film in every scene. His presence is all around the film and it is an excellent film. If they give it for the greatest impact a director has on the film, this is it. Best Adapted Screenplay Most li...

a list about plays (post 1950)

The general perception is good plays stopped being written. That all the plays being performed which remain popular are classics and there is no place for the playwright in the current dramatic world. The role of the playwright has been diminished but good plays have not become extinct in the 20th and 21st century.This list will attempt to reflect that by giving a selection of excellent plays written (and performed) after 1950. 20. Prelude to a Kiss- Craig Lucas. Premiered in California in 1988. Quick Description: Thought to be a metaphor for AIDS. A story about the switching of bodies between a new bride and an old man and how the husband must find the old man while keeping his love alive. Something of a Sci-fi style and one of the most original works in recent times. 19. Long Day's Journey Into Night - Eugene O'Neill.premiered in Stockholm at the Royal Dramatic theatre in 1956. quick summary: A play about addiction and how it affects everyone around the addict.The characters ...

Travel Writings- Rome (I)

Rome is a cliché. Usually that isn’t a good thing but when the cliché is that a city is cool, full of life and gorgeous, the clichés can stay. Rome is possibly the only European capital that can claim to rival Paris in the popular imagination in terms of having an expectation around it. Even Paris is now succumbing to parallel narratives due to the sheer size of the city (much like London), with the immigrant experience less of an unknown story (to non-immigrants anyway. Immigrants always knew it wasn’t cities paved with gold they’d find). Some combination of smaller population, less immigration and the weight of centuries of civilization being still visible across the city has allowed Rome to actually deserve the tag of “The Eternal City”. My idea of Rome comes to me primarily from Italian films of the 1960s. Rome is black and white in my mind just as it is on Fellini’s film reel. I had low expectations. Months in London had allowed cynicism to set in...

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