By Bel Hernandez Castillo
One of the most respected and acclaimed cinematographers in the world, Oscar nominated Rodrigo Prieto received the Visionary Award in Cinematography this past weekend at the Cine Gear Expo held at the Warner Bros. Studios.
Prieto has become known for his meticulous setups, unconventional camerawork, and rich use of color. He’s been nominated for four Academy Awards for his work on Brokeback Mountain, Silence, The Irishman, and this year’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
His collaboration with fellow Mexican, director Alejandro González Iñárritu in Amores Perros in 2000. His next two film with Iñárritu, 21 Grams, which starred Sean Penn and Naomi Watts and Babel, which starred Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and was nominated for seven Academy Awards (and a win for composer Gustavo Santaolalla), are the films regarded as the renaissance of Mexican cinema.
Other notable films include some of Hollywood’s iconic films such as Passengers, Argo, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Barbie. It is not why Prieto is hailed as one of the greatest cinematographer of his time.
Prieto is currently in post-production for his directorial debut, an adaptation of Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo, which is considered one of the most revered Mexican Novels of the 20th century. The film follows a dusty road to a town of death. Time shifts from one consciousness to another in a hypnotic flow of dreams, desires, and memories, a world of ghosts dominated by the figure of Pedro Páramo lover, overlord, murderer. Pedro Paramo was filmed in Mexico with a mostly Mexican cast.
Leading the cast on the Netflix produced film are Manuel García-Rulfo (Lincoln Lawyer) as Pedro Paramo and Tenoch Huerta as Juan Preciado. They are joined by Ilse Salas, Mayra Batalla, Héctor Kotsifakis, Roberto Sosa, Dolores Heredia, Giovanna Zacarías, Noé Hernández and Yoshira Escárrega among many other well-known talents.