García Bernal, Gael

He studied acting at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (CSSD), London. Actor, film director and producer, he is the founding partner of the Mexican production and distribution company CANANA and the Ambulante Documentary Tour, Mexico. Recently, he was part of the jury at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, France. His acting career began at a young age with De tripas corazón (1996) by Antonio Urrutia, a film nominated for the Best Short Film award at the 68th Academy Awards ceremony, United States, and winner of the Ariel for Best Short Fiction Film at the 38th Ariel Awards. Gael García has received more than 20 awards around the world, including the Ariel for Best Actor at the 43rd Ariel Awards for his work in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s first feature film, Amores Perros (2000); the Marcello Mastroianni Award, shared with Diego Luna, for his acting in Y tu mamá también (2001) by Alfonso Cuarón, at the 58th Venice International Film Festival, Italy; and Best Actor at the 11th Valdivia International Film Festival  (FICV / FICValdivia), Chile, for his part in La mala educación (2004) by Pedro Almodóvar, the opening film at the 57th Cannes Film Festival. He has also worked with other acclaimed directors, like Walter Salles, for whom he played the revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara in Diarios de motocicleta (2004), which won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 57th Cannes Film Festival; with Michel Gondry in The Science of Sleep (2006), winner of the Best Soundtrack Award  for Jean-Michel Bernard at the 60th Cannes Film Festival; and with Jim Jarmusch in Los límites del control (2009). As film director, he has participated in two editions of the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM). He was a special invited guest at the 5th FICM, where he presented his first feature film Déficit (2007), which was also shown at the 46th Critics’ Week, Cannes, France. He participated in the collective work Revolución (2010), which premiered at the 8th FICM, with his fragment Lucio. This work was also screened at the 49th Critics’ Week, Cannes, and won the “Abrazo” award for Best Feature and the French Film Critics Union award at the 19th Biarritz Festival of Latin American Cinema and Cultures, France.