Lynn Fainchtein, a prominent Mexican Grammy Award-winner musical supervisor renowned for overseeing the soundtracks of numerous films, including Amores Perros by Alejandro González Iñárritu and Roma by Alfonso Cuarón, passed away early this morning in Madrid, Spain, at the age of 60, after battling cancer.
Born in 1963 to a Russian-Jewish background, Fainchtein pursued psychology studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She enjoyed a successful career in radio for about a decade, working at Rock 101 station as a host and producer. Additionally, she created and managed the AM station Dimensión 1380 for six years and served as head of programming and news producer at MTV LATAM until 2000.
In the same year, Fainchtein ventured into music supervision for feature films, such as Amores Perros and Todo el poder by Fernando Sariñana, both for the newly-established Altavista studios, marking the onset of her illustrious career in cinema. Since then, she has worked as a music supervisor and producer for numerous films and shows across major studios worldwide, including Netflix, HBO, Amazon, Apple, Fox, and Star+.
Fainchtein maintained a longstanding collaboration with Mexican film director González Iñárritu, contributing to all of his films, including 21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful, Birdman, The Revenant, and the more recent Bardo. She also supervised the musical aspect of Cuarón's Roma, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival and earned 10 Academy Award nominations, securing wins for Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film (marking Mexico's first Oscar win in this category), and Best Photography.
In 2022, Cuarón enlisted Fainchtein to oversee and craft the music for his inaugural television series for Apple TV+ titled Augustus, slated for release in 2024 and starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, and Sacha Baron Cohen.
Among her extensive film credits are Maria Full of Grace by Joshua Marston, Sleep Dealer by Alex Rivera, Under the Same Moon and The 33 by Patricia Riggen, Casa de los Babys by John Sayles, Sin Nombre by Cary Joji Fukunaga, Private Perez by Beto Gómez, the Oscar-nominated Precious by Lee Daniels, and César Chávez by Diego Luna.
Additionally, Fainchtein supervised the music for acclaimed documentaries including the Oscar-nominated The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson by David France and the Emmy winner Presumed Guilty by Roberto Hernández and Geoffrey Smith, as well as lauded titles including Hands of Stone by Jonathan Jakubowicz, Chicuarotes by Gael García Bernal, Tigers Are Not Afraid by Issa López, Gloria Bell by Sebastián Lelio, and Miss Bala by Catherine Hardwicke, among many others.
In 2022 she won the Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media for her work in Daniel’s biographical drama The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Last year, she worked on Amat Escalante's Lost in the Night, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, marking her final film credit. At the time of her passing, she was engaged in two upcoming series: Netflix’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, based on Gabriel García Márquez's acclaimed novel, and Apple TV's Las Azules.
