10 Most Diverse Directors In Hollywood

In the 1990s and 2000s there was a strange trend of re-imagining classic works of literature for a contemporary setting, such as 10 Things I Hate About You. Alfonso Cuaron contributed to this trend with the release of Great Expectations, an adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens novel set in 1990s New York. It didn't generate much buzz, considering that both the film itself is rather average and was also released less than a month after Titanic.

Then came Y Tu Mama Tambien (or And Your Mother Too). Anything but tame, it is a coming of age story with rather explicit portrayals of drug abuse and sex. Regardless of this, it turned heads and ended up nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars. Cuaron had arrived in Hollywood.

Then came the big one as off course the natural followup to a coming of age erotic drama set in Mexico was the family friendly fantasy adventure film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. This is arguably the most important film in the entire franchise, which completely changed the tone of the franchise to a considerably darker and more mature one. It is also widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, films in the entire franchise.

Since this massive success, Alfonso Cuaron has only directed 3 films, all of which couldn't be more different from one another. Children of Men was a socially conscious dystopian action film, and further explored the darker aesthetics established in his Harry Potter effort.

Seven years later he released Gravity, an intense science fiction film set almost in real time. Visually striking, the film manages to be incredibly claustrophobic whilst being set in the magnitude of space.

Then in 2018 Cuaron went back to basics (in a sense) with the release of Roma. Although the most understated film of his career, it probably was his biggest undertaking yet. Not only did he write and direct this film, he was producing, co-editing and even served as his own cinematographer. This is relatively unheard of in Hollywood. It all paid off, as he picked up 3 Academy Awards for his effort.

Maybe Cuaron will take another extended break from directing, but all we can hope for is this insanely impressive batting average continues.