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C A S Q U A R T E R L Y I W I N T E R 2 0 2 3 41 Born and raised in Mexico City, Academy Award-winning director, writer, and producer Alejandro González Iñárritu is one of cinema's most celebrated and respected storytellers. His influential body of work explores the human condition with cinematic daring and a deeply affecting visual and sonic grammar. Deadline recently noted how this bilingual filmmaker emphasizes sound as he crafts the visuals in his narratives: "Cinema is an audiovisual medium. That's why audio is first." He also tells CAS: "Sound is primal. It is a sensorial frequency, it hits our body, and our body does not lie. Unlike the image, it does not need a process of interpretation or intellectualization. For this reason, I think sound is even With Javier Bardem on Biutiful With Michael Keaton on Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) more impactful than the visuals, and through it, you can have parallel narratives along a film." Always sensitive to the importance of music and sound, Iñárritu began his career as a host and director at Mexico City's rock radio station WFM before transitioning to writing, producing, and directing short films and commercials under his Z Films company. Iñárritu is the first Mexican filmmaker to be nominated for either director or producer in the history of the Academy Awards, the first to win an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and for Best Picture, the first to receive the Best Director Award at Cannes, and the first to