Guillermo Arriaga Jordán (; born 13 March 1958) is a Mexican novelist, screenwriter, director and producer. Self-defined as "a hunter who works as a writer," he is best known for his Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay nominations for Babel and his screenplay for The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which received the 2005 Cannes Best Screenplay Award.
Early life Arriaga was born on 13 March 1958 in Mexico City. At the age of 13, he lost his sense of smell after a brutal street fight that would later serve as inspiration for some of his work. Before engaging in his writing career, Arriaga tried out a variety of jobs and professions, including boxing and playing basketball and professional soccer. He completed a B.A. in Communications and a M.A. in Psychology at the Ibero-American University.
Career
While teaching at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Arriaga met future film director Alejandro González Iñárritu and decided to make a feature length, multiplot film set in Mexico City. The result was Amores Perros (2000). The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film as well as a BAFTA Film Award for "Best Film not in the English Language," the "Critics Week Grand Prize" and "Young Critics Award" at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, as well as many other awards from festivals and societies around the world.
The success of Amores Perros earned Arriaga and Iñárritu an invitation to the U.S. to work on the Universal/Focus Features film 21 Grams, starring Benicio del Toro, Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. Del Toro and Watts received Academy Award nominations for their performances.
González Iñárritu and Arriaga collaborated on a third movie, Babel, to form a trilogy with his first two pictures focusing on the theme of death. However, friction between writer and director led to González Iñárritu banning Arriaga from attending the 2006 Cannes screening of Babel. Nevertheless, González Iñárritu and Arriaga both received Academy Award nominations for their work.
On 19 January 2007, the film adaptation of his book El Búfalo de la Noche directed by Jorge Hernandez Aldana premiered at the Sundance film festival. It features a score by Omar Rodríguez-López of The Mars Volta.
On 29 August 2008, The Burning Plain was premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Arriaga wrote the script and pitched it to American producers, who talked with some directors. Arriaga eventually directed the film, starring Charlize Theron.David Gritten, "The Burning Plain," The Telegraph, 13 August 2009.
Arriaga objects to being called a "guionista" (Spanish for "screenwriter");TV interview at KUSI in San Diego on 10 September 2009 he advocates for screenwriters being referred to as "writers" and screenplays being referred to as "works of film." He has clarified that he has no objections to the term's use in English; his issue with "guionista" is that in Spanish the term has the wrong connotations since the word also used to describe people who write tour guidebooks.
In 2011, Mexican producers including Arriaga, Alex Garcia, and Lucas Akoskin unveiled "Heartbeat of the World," an international cinema project with four films tackling topics including religion, sexuality, politics and drug addiction. Each of the four feature films consist of a collaborative set of 10 shorts. The first film in the series—Words with Gods—includes contributions from Arriaga, Emir Kusturica, Brazil's Jose Padilha, Australia's Warwick Thornton, Iran's Bahman Ghobadi, India's Mira Nair, and Japan's Hideo Nakata. The three other films are the "drug-themed Into the Bloodstream; Encounters, a look at sexual identity and expression; and Polis, which delves into political topics." Financing for all four movies have been secured, with each produced in 14 months.
Guillermo Arriaga won the Premio Alfaguara de Novela for his novel, Salvar el fuego on 24 January 2020.Guillermo Arriaga, premio Alfaguara de novela con una historia de violencia y amor en el México actual Luis Alemany, El Mundo (Madrid), 24 Jan 2020
Non-profit work Since 2005, Guillermo Arriaga has been one of the patrons of DreamAgo, an international screenwriters association.
Personal life Arriaga is a teetotaler.
Filmography Feature films Year Film Director Writer Producer Note 1999 Un Dulce Olor a Muerte 2000 Amores perros 2003 21 Grams 2005 The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Also actor as a bear hunter. 2006 Babel 2007 The Night Buffalo 2008 The Burning Plain 2014 Rio, I Love You Words with Gods 2015 From Afar 2016 On the Milky Road 2023 Upon Open Sky
Short films Year Film Director Writer ProducerNotes1987Campeones Sin LímitesDocumentary short filmAlso editor 2001 Powder Keg 2004Los Elefantes Nunca Olvidan 2008 Dusk 2010 El Pozo 2013 Broken Night Zero Hour Fin del Mundo2015 Desde Abajo En defensa propia 2017Libre de Culpa2018B-167-980-0982019No One Left BehindLa Hora Cero
Selected works Year of Publication Literary work Genre2025El HombreNovel2023Extrañas Novel2020Salvar el fuegoNovel2016El salvaje, Translated as The Untameable by Frank Wynne Novel2007The Guillotine Squad, translated by Alan Page Novel2007A Sweet Scent of Death, translated by Alan Page Novel2007Night Buffalo, translated by Alan Page Novel1999El Búfalo de la Noche, Novel1994Un Dulce Olor a Muerte, Novel1991Escuadrón Guillotina Novel
References
External links
Interview with Guillermo Arriaga at El Malpensante Writing (and Filming) the Memories: Interview with Guillermo Arriaga on The Burning Plain by Matthew Sorrento (Bright Lights Film Journal)