Mexican landmark film Amores Perros premiered 25 years ago today at Cannes. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s debut feature has its world premiere in the in the International Critics’ Week parallel section of the French film festival, and marked a watershed in Latin American cinema, launching the international careers of many of its cast and crew—including the director himself, actors Gael García Bernal and Adriana Barraza, screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, composer Gustavo Santaolalla, art director Brigitte Broch, and producers Martha Sosa and Mónica Lozano, to name just a few.
As González Iñárritu has recounted in interviews, the producers had originally submitted the film to Cannes’ official selection via the then Latin American delegate Alexis Grivas, who dismissed it as too violent, too long, and unlikely to generate interest.
It was the late Spanish film critic and programmer José María Riba—then director of the Critics’ Week, who passed away in May 2020—who championed the film and hosted its world premiere. The screening made a splash and was awarded the Critics' Week Grand Prix. “Amores Perros may also turn out to be the most exciting blast of pure narrative in Cannes this year,” wrote Jonathan Romney in The Guardian.
The Cannes platform, combined with the award, opened international doors for the Mexican film, which was subsequently invited to festivals across the globe—including Toronto, Karlovy Vary, Jeonju, Havana, and Sarajevo. It had its U.S. premiere at the 38th New York Film Festival in October 2000 to great acclaim.
The film was picked up for U.S. distribution by Lionsgate and released on March 30, 2001. The then-nascent Cinema Tropical organized a sneak preview in New York City with the director and García Bernal in attendance, followed by a cocktail reception at Café Frida. “Amores Perros feels like the first classic of the new decade, with sequences that will probably make their way into history,” wrote Elvis Mitchell in The New York Times. The film went on to earn nominations for both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.
Actor Gael García Bernal and director Alejandro González Iñarritu with Cinema Tropical’s director Carlos A. Gutiérrez at a special sneak preview of Amores Perros in New York City in 2001
Following the success of Amores Perros, González Iñárritu moved to Los Angeles, directing 21 Grams (2003) and Babel (2006), which—along with his debut—form a loose trilogy defined by the multi-narrative hyperlink cinema style. After parting ways creatively with Arriaga, he directed Biutiful (2010) in Spain, before solidifying his status as a Hollywood auteur with Birdman (2014) and The Revenant (2015), winning the Oscar for Best Director two years in a row. In 2019, he was named president of the Cannes jury, and returned to Mexico in 2022 to shoot Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths.
García Bernal followed the film with Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También, becoming an icon of the new Latin American cinema. He went on to collaborate with directors such as Pedro Almodóvar, Walter Salles, Michel Gondry, Pablo Larraín, and Olivier Assayas. In 2016, he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series for Mozart in the Jungle. Beyond acting, he has directed two features, produced several others, and co-founded Mexico’s Ambulante documentary film festival.
Adriana Barraza, who played Octavio’s mother, later reunited with González Iñárritu in Babel, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She has since worked in both U.S. and Mexican productions, including Natalia Almada’s Everything Else.
Rodrigo Prieto built a distinguished career in Hollywood, working with Martin Scorsese, Julie Taymor, Cameron Crowe, Oliver Stone, Pedro Almodóvar, Ang Lee, and Spike Lee. He has earned four Oscar nominations—for Brokeback Mountain (2006), Silence (2017), The Irishman (2020), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2024). In 2023, he made his directorial debut with Pedro Páramo, an adaptation of the Juan Rulfo novel.
Guillermo Arriaga continued his screenwriting success with 21 Grams and Babel, and also wrote The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, directed by Tommy Lee Jones, for which he won Best Screenplay at Cannes in 2005. In 2008, he made his directorial debut with The Burning Plain, starring Charlize Theron, Jennifer Lawrence, and Kim Basinger. He also co-wrote and produced the Venezuelan film From Afar (2015), winner of the Golden Lion at Venice.
Argentine-born Gustavo Santaolalla balanced his work as a musician and producer with scoring films, winning back-to-back Oscars for Best Original Score for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Babel (2006). German-Mexican production designer Brigitte Broch later won an Academy Award for Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!
The international success of Amores Perros, combined with the emergence of the New Argentine Cinema of the late 1990s and early 2000s—fueled by filmmakers such as Lucrecia Martel, Pablo Trapero, and Martín Rejtman—proved pivotal to the renaissance of Latin American cinema. The momentum sparked by these works continues to inspire and shape global cinema today.
