Early life

Alfonso Cuarón was born in Mexico City, and is the son of Alfredo Cuarón, a nuclear physicist who worked for the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency for many years. He has two brothers, Carlos, also a filmmaker, and Alfredo, a conservation biologist.

Cuarón studied philosophy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and filmmaking at CUEC (Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos), a school within the same university. There, he met the director Carlos Marcovich and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, and they made what would be his first short film, Vengeance Is Mine.

Career

Cuarón began working in television in Mexico, first as a technician and then as a director. His television work led to assignments as an assistant director for several Latin American film productions including Gaby: A True Story and Romero, and in 1991, he landed his first big-screen directorial assignment. On January 12, 2014, Alfonso accepted the Golden Globe Award in the category Best Director for Gravity (The 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards, 2014). He also won two Oscars for Best Film Editing and Best Directing.

Sólo con tu pareja

Sólo con tu pareja was a sex comedy about a womanizing businessman (played by Daniel Giménez Cacho) who, after having sex with an attractive nurse, is fooled into believing he's contracted AIDS. In addition to writing, producing and directing, Cuarón co-edited the film with Luis Patlán. It is somewhat unusual for directors to be credited co-editors, although the Coen Brothers and Robert Rodriguez have both directed and edited nearly all of their films. Cuarón continued this close involvement in editing on several of his later films.

The film, which also starred cabaret singer Astrid Hadad and model/actress Claudia Ramírez (with whom Cuarón was linked between 1989 and 1993), was a big hit in Mexico. After this success, director Sydney Pollack hired Cuarón to direct an episode of Fallen Angels, a series of neo-noir stories produced for the Showtime premium cable network in 1993; other directors who worked on the series included Steven Soderbergh, Jonathan Kaplan, Peter Bogdanovich and Tom Hanks.

International success

In 1995, Cuarón released his first feature film produced in the United States, A Little Princess, an adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic novel. Cuarón's next feature was also a literary adaptation, a modernized version of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert De Niro.

Cuarón's next project found him returning to Mexico with a Spanish-speaking cast to film Y Tu Mamá También, starring Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna and Maribel Verdú. It was a provocative and controversial road comedy about two sexually obsessed teenagers who take an extended road trip with an attractive married woman that is much older than them. The film's open portrayal of sexuality and frequent rude humor, as well as the politically and socially relevant asides, made the film an international hit and a major success with critics. Cuarón shared an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay with co-writer and brother Carlos Cuarón.

In 2003, Cuarón directed the third film in the successful Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Cuarón faced criticism from some of the more purist Harry Potter fans for his approach to the film. At the time of the movie's release, however, author J. K. Rowling, who had seen and loved Cuarón's film Y Tu Mamá También, said that it was her personal favorite from the series so far. Critically, the film was also better received than the first two installments, with some critics remarking that it was the first Harry Potter film to truly capture the essence of the novels. It remained as the most critically acclaimed film of the Harry Potter film franchise until the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2.

Cuarón's feature Children of Men, an adaptation of the P. D. James novel starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine, received wide critical acclaim, including three Academy Award nominations. Cuarón himself received two nominations for his work on the film in Best Film Editing (with Alex Rodríguez) and Best Adapted Screenplay (with several collaborators).

He created the production and distribution company Esperanto Filmoj (Esperanto Films, named because of his support for the international language Esperanto), which has credits in the films Duck Season, Pan's Labyrinth, and Gravity.

Cuarón also directed the controversial public service announcement "I Am Autism" for Autism Speaks that was sharply criticized by disability rights groups for its negative portrayal of autism.

In 2010, Cuarón began to develop the film Gravity, a drama set in space. He was joined by producer David Heyman, with whom Cuarón worked on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, the film was released in the fall of 2013 and opened the 70th Venice International Film Festival in August. The film received ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Directing. Cuarón won for Best Directing, becoming the first Latin American to win the award, while he and Mark Sanger shared the award for Best Film Editing.

In 2013, Cuarón created Believe, a science fiction/fantasy/adventure series that was broadcast as part of the 2013-14 United States network television schedule on NBC as a mid-season entry. The series was created by Cuarón for Bad Robot Productions and Warner Bros. Television. In 2014, TIME placed him in its list of "100 Most Influential People in the World" - Pioneers.

In May 2015 Cuarón was announced as the President of the Jury for the 72nd Venice International Film Festival.

Personal life

Cuarón is a vegetarian and has been living in London since 2000. He was 20 when his girlfriend at the time became pregnant with Jonás. He was married to Italian actress and freelance journalist Annalisa Bugliani from 2001 to 2008. They have two children: daughter Tess Bu Cuarón (born 2003) and son Olmo Teodoro Cuarón (born 2005). Since 2010, he has been in a relationship with jeweller and writer Sheherazade Goldsmith.

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Film	Credited as
		Director	Writer	Producer	Editor	Assistant director	Associate producer
1986	Les Pyramides Bleues					Yes
1989	Romero					Yes
1991	Sólo con tu pareja	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
1995	A Little Princess	Yes
1998	Great Expectations	Yes
2001	Y Tu Mamá También	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
2004	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	Yes
	Crónicas			Yes
	The Assassination of Richard Nixon			Yes
2005	Black Sun			Yes
2006	Children of Men	Yes	Yes		Yes
	Pan's Labyrinth			Yes
2007	Year of the Nail			Yes
2008	Rudo y Cursi			Yes
2010	Biutiful						Yes
2013	Gravity	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Aningaaq						Yes
2016	Desierto			Yes

Short films

• Who's He Anyway (1983)
• Vengeance Is Mine (1983) Co-director
• Cuarteto para el fin del tiempo (1983)
• Paris, je t'aime (2006) (segment "Parc Monceau")
• The Shock Doctrine (2007)

Documentary films

• The Possibility of Hope (2007) Short
• This Changes Everything (2015) Executive producer

TV

• La Hora Marcada (1986) (episodes "Ángel Pérez", "El taxi", "Zangamanga", "No estoy jugando" and "A veces regresa")
• Fallen Angels (1993) (episode "Murder, Obliquely")
• Believe (2014)

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
2001	Venice Film Festival	Golden Lion	Y tu mamá también	Nominated
		Best Screenplay		Won
2003	Academy Awards	Best Screenplay - Original		Nominated
	British Academy Film Awards	Best Film Not in the English Language		Nominated
		Best Screenplay - Original		Nominated
	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Foreign Film		Won
2004	British Academy Film Awards	BAFTA Children's Award - Best Feature Film	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	Won
	Saturn Awards	Best Director		Nominated
2005	British Academy Film Awards	Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film		Nominated
2006	Venice Film Festival	Golden Lion	Children of Men	Nominated
		Laterna Magica Prize		Won
	Saturn Awards	Best Director		Nominated
2007	Academy Awards	Best Screenplay - Adapted		Nominated
		Best Editing		Nominated
	British Academy Film Awards	Best Film Not in the English Language	Pan's Labyrinth	Won
	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Feature		Nominated
2011	British Academy Film Awards	BAFTA Children's Award - First Light Awards - Kids' Vote for Film of the Decade	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	Won
		Michael Balcon Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema	Harry Potter series (shared with Harry Potter cast and crew)	Won
2013	Venice Film Festival	Future Film Digital Award	Gravity	Won
2014	Academy Awards	Best Picture		Nominated
		Best Directing		Won
		Best Film Editing		Won
	British Academy Film Awards	Best Film		Nominated
		Best Director		Won
		Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film		Won
		Best Original Screenplay		Nominated
		Best Editing		Nominated
	Critics' Choice Movie Award	Best Director		Won
	Directors Guild of America Award	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures		Won
	Empire Awards	Best Director		Won
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Director		Won
	International Online Film Critics' Poll	Best Editing		Won
	Producers Guild of America Award	Best Theatrical Motion Picture		Won
	Saturn Award	Best Director		Won
	Silver Condor Award	Best Foreign Film		Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]