Um, was there a Latino ‘takeover’ of the 73rd Annual Golden Globes? Yes! Jennifer Lopez, America Ferrara, Oscar Isaac and Gael Garcia Bernal were just a few of Latinos that made headlines after one of Hollywood’s biggest nights.
JLo looked stunning, as always, in her Giambattista Valli gown and 200 carats of Harry Winston diamonds — 200 CARATS.
Credit: Jason Merritt / Getty
Let’s face it, JLo, and her peek-a-boo leg, will ALWAYS look #flawless.
And Gina Rodriguez showed the world that Latinas can rock any color they please.
Ricky Gervais started off the night with a well-timed El Chapo joke.
Credit: Handout / Getty
“I’m going to do this monologue and then go into hiding,” Gervais said. “Not even Sean Penn will find me.” After that, you just knew that Latinos were about to represent.
America Ferrera and Eva Longoria threw some shade at the Golden Globes and reminded everyone that not all Latinas look the same.
“Hi. I’m Eva Longoira, not Eva Menedes,” Longoria started.
“And hi, I’m America Ferrera, not Gina Rodriguez,” Ferrera added.
“And neither one of us are Rosario Dawson,” Longoria said.
Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Revenant cleaned up at the Globes.
Credit: Mark Davis / Getty
From Best Motion Picture to Best Director – Motion Picture, Revenant was clearly the biggest winner of the night. The movie even landed Leonardo DiCaprio another Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture. Congrats, Leo!
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association fell in love with Oscar Isaac’s role in Show Me a Hero, landing him Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television.
Credit: Kevin Winter / Getty
His speech was pretty straightforward, but the first three seconds of celebration behind the mic is what got everyone talking about the Guatemalan/Cuban actor.
Heartthrob, Gael Garcia Bernal, was honored with a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy for his role in Mozart in the Jungle.
Credit: Handout / Getty
The Mexican actor started his speech off with a resounding, “¡Güey!” as he looked shocked and pleased with being crowned best actor in a TV series.
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Unless you live under a rock, you probably know that the movie biz is run by white folks. Yes, it sucks, but the good news is there are some truly kickass people of color out there paving the way for the rest of us.
It’s old news that Hollywood has a huge diversity problem (#Oscarsowhite, anybody?). Even beyond the Academy Awards, this year’s Cannes Film Festival left a LOT to be desired when it came to Latino representation.
But, thankfully, that is beginning to change and more and more directors claim their spot in the directors chair and we are so grateful for the representiaon they’re bringing younger audiences because representation matters.
Moreover, many Latin-American directors particularly are seeing success both with critics and at the box office with such movies as Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant dominating the box office while also taking home numerous awards. Here are some of our favorite directors and a few lesser-known ones that you should add to your watch lists.
Adrian Molina
Adrian Molina has a breadth of experience under his belt, particularly in animation. He’s worked at Pixar Animation Studios on Toy Story 3 and in other capacities on Monsters University, Ratatouille and The Good Dinosaur. But it’s perhaps his work on Coco, which he co-wrote and co-directed, that e all know best.
Since Coco’s debut in theaters in Mexico, it has become the country’s highest-grossing movie in cinematic history. In the U.S., Coco, whose voice talent includes actors Gael Garcia Bernal, Edward James Olmos and Benjamin Bratt, has been a champion at the box office, coming in No. 1 three weekends in a row and garnering major Oscar buzz.
Aurora Guerrero
Born and raised in San Francisco to Mexican immigrant parents, director Aurora Guerrero graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Psychology and Chicano studies. She dabbled in shorts for several years before directing an episode of Ava DuVernay’s groundbreaking series Queen Sugar, continuing DuVernay’s promise to have every episode directed by a woman of color.
Guerrero is gearing up to direct a feature she’s writing entitled Los Valientes about a gay, undocumented immigrant who finds his life turned upside down after traveling to a conservative Pennsylvania town.
Alfonso Arau
Though the Mexican director Alfonso Arau started out as an actor (some of his acting credits include The Wild Bunch, Three Amigos, and Romancing the Stone), he eventually transitioned to directing.
Arau’s two most well-known works are 1992’s Like Water for Chocolate and 1995’s A Walk in the Clouds. The former was based on the novel written by Arau’s then-wife Laura Esquivel, became the highest-grossing non-English-language film ever released in the United States at the time, and even got nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Gloria Calderon Kellett
Perhaps one of her biggest credits is her work on One Day at a Time, which she created, wrote, executive produced, and even acted as co-show runner for the Netflix series.
Kellett grew up in Beaverton, Oregon, and San Diego, California, and earned her degree in Communications and Theater Arts from Marymount University. She’s not stepping into directing without some experience. She directed two shorts a few years ago, Mouthbreather and Blind, and an episode of the webseries Misery Loves Company in 2017. Earlier this year, Kellett announced she is developing a new TV show for CBS, History of Them.
Marvin Lemus
Mexican-Guatemalan-American filmmaker Marvin Lemus got his start in digital production, working on viral videos and marketing campaigns, including those utilized in the film Dear White People. After dabbling in shorts Lemus transitioned to creating his first series. The result was a web series titled Gente-fied.
Alfonso Cuarón
Along with his countrymen, Alfonso Cuarón has distinguished himself as one of the greatest directors of our time. Working in different genres, Cuarón has been both critically and commercially successful as well as becoming the first Latin American to win the Academy Award for Best Director.
Cuarón’s directorial debut was 1991’s Solo con tu pareja, but his first success came with his second film – A Little Princess which was nominated for two Oscars. Y tu mamá también was a massive hit and got nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Cuarón followed these achievements with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which got two Oscar nominations and is still considered to be the best installment in the franchise. His latest films, Gravity and Roma, both received multiple award nominations winning seven and three Oscars respectively. For both films, Cuarón won the Best Director award just like Iñárritu did.
Guillermo del Toro
It’s no secret that Guillermo del Toro is close friends with the two other prominent Mexican directors working today (Alejandro González Iñárritu and Alfonso Cuarón) with the trio being collectively known as “The Three Amigos of Cinema”. And their acclaim and success stem from their immense talent and hard work.
Del Toro has directed big-budget movies like Blade II and Hellboy (for which he also directed a sequel later on) before directing critically-acclaimed Pan’s Labyrinth which went on to be nominated for multiple awards. del Toro also directed Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak, and the Academy Award-winning The Shape of Water.
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Undoubtedly, Alejandro González Iñárritu is among the most successful directors working today – not just in his own country but internationally. Moreover, this worldwide success is probably tied to the fact that Iñárritu loves telling international stories and his films always have diverse casts.
Iñárritu’s directorial debut was 2000’s Amores perros which was the first installment in his Trilogy of Death and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The two films that followed were also a part of the trilogy: 21 Grams which was nominated for two Oscars and Babel which won the Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, won the Golden Globe Award for Best Drama, and got seven Oscar nominations.
But the most successful works of Iñárritu are definitely his two latest films: Birdman which won four Oscars and The Revenant which won three Oscars. In both cases, Iñárritu took home the Best Director award.
Drum roll please… and the 2020 People’s Icon is Jennifer “Jenny from the Block” Lopez!
The E! People’s Choice Awards took place on Sunday and J.Lo took the stage to receive the People’s Icon Award in a stunning red dress.
J.Lo was honored for her work as an artist, dancer, actress, and for opening the door for more LatinX representation in the entertainment industry. She has been very successful, from starring as SelenaQuintanilla-Pérez in the 1997 film to the iconic Versace green dress to her role in the 2019 “Hustlers” movie and her 2020 Half-time Super Bowl performance.
As J.Lo received her award on stage, she was surprised with a virtual message from Nicole Kidman and Renne Zellweger.
Moments later, Emme and Max, Lopez’s 12-year-old twins appeared on the screen to congratulate their mom and stayed on the screen as support during J.Lo’s acceptance speech.
“Man, 2020 was no joke right? I mean before 2020 we were obsessing about winning this award or getting nominated for that award or we were caught up in who sold the most records or box office opening or crazy stuff like did we get the latest drop or the newest sneakers before anybody else. But not this year. This year was the great leveler,” Lopez told the audience as she began her speech.
“It showed us what mattered, what didn’t. And for me, reinforced what mattered most: People, all of us, together,” Lopez said and took a pause as the audience applauded.
“Helping each other, loving each other, being kind to each other. And the importance of that connection, that human touch. I realized that’s what I strive for in everything I do. To reach people, to touch people. I believe that’s what we all want, those shared experiences to know that we’re not in this alone.”
The artist thanked her fans, family, and friends for having faith and believing in her even when she did not feel motivated.
“You know I approach my career the same way I approach my life. I lead with life, I feel with my heart and I always try to speak truth in telling stories, singing songs. I do so with the purpose of bringing a little happiness, creating beauty and inspiring others to do the same. From being a little girl in the Bronx, New York, and having the privilege of performing on some of the biggest stages in the world, and even at the Super Bowl earlier this year, that was a biggie! I have seen and learned a lot and I am still learning. I want to thank you and tell you how much I appreciate you for letting me do that in front of you for all of these years,” she said.
J.Lo went on to speak about the struggles and doubts she faced as a woman and a Latina and gave an inspiring message to young girls.
“As a Latina and as a woman, we have to work twice as hard to get the opportunities, sometimes my big dreams and my ambitions, it made the people around me nervous. ‘You can’t be an actress. You’re an actress, what you want to sing? You’re an artist, you won’t be taken seriously as a businesswoman.’ The more that they said I couldn’t, the more I knew that I had to. So now here I stand so very grateful knowing that the true measure of my success is not in box office numbers or records sold, but from the love that I feel from all of you,” a teary J.Lo said.
“The true measure is inspiring girls in all ages and all colors, from all over the world, to know you can do whatever want, as many things as you want and to be proud of who you are no matter where you come from. I want them to know your dreams are limited only by your imagination, determination and their willingness to never give up. If I have touched you or them in any small way, then this is the greatest award I could ever receive. I accept this award with great humility and gratitude, and hope we can begin to heal as a country and stand together united and proud, and in harmony,” she said.
At the end of the speech, she gave a message to the Latino community in Spanish.
“Y a mi gente Latina a donde quiera que yo esté y donde quiera que yo vaya siempre los tengo presente. Y es para mi un orgullo poder representar a los Latinos de todas partes. Con todo mi corazón y con todo mi amor gracias mi gente los quiero mucho y recuerden la vida es un tango y hay que seguir bailando siempre,” Lopez said before leaving the stage.
