Who is Jonás Cuarón? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Also Known As: Jonás Cuarón Elizondo

Age: 43 Years, 43 Year Old Males

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Eireann Harper (m. 2007)

father: Alfonso Cuarón

mother: Mariana Elizondo

siblings: Diego Cataño

Directors Screenwriters

City: Mexico City, Mexico

More Facts

education: Vassar College

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Career

Having been raised in the household of one of the most prominent Mexican filmmakers of all time, Cuarón was naturally interested in movies. He earned his degree in film from Vassar College, a New York-based liberal arts school, and subsequently started developing projects.

When he was a child, he appeared in two of his father’s films. In 1991, he played a kid at a wedding in the romantic comedy ‘Sólo con Tu Pareja’. The film’s screenplay was penned by his father and his uncle Carlos. Besides Cuarón, the film also starred Daniel Giménez Cacho and Luis de Icaza. In 1991, he appeared in an uncredited role in family fantasy drama ‘A Little Princess’. Based on a novel by American-British author Frances Hodgson Burnett, the film tells the story of a young girl who is forced to become a servant at a boarding school after her father’s whereabouts become unknown.

Cuarón got his start as a writer, director, producer, editor, art director, and cinematographer with ‘Año uña’ (Year of the Nail), an indie romance drama that has been structured like an album of photographs. Released in 2007, the film stars Eireann Harper, who is his real-life wife, Diego Cataño, and Michele Alban, and revolves around a Mexican teenager who falls in love with an older American woman. For the movie, Cuarón received the Special Achievement Award at the 2007 Thessaloniki Film Festival.

In 2007, he also directed the animated short documentary ‘The Shock Doctrine’, a film that presupposes a surprising link between market methods and CIA torture techniques developed in the 1950s and attempts to arrive at the conclusion that many recent historical events, such as Pinochet's coup in Chile, Tiananmen Square Massacre, and the Iraq War, are theatres for the shock doctrine. The film served as an advertisement for Canadian author Naomi Klein’s book of the same name. Alfonso Cuarón co-wrote the screenplay with Klein.

Cuarón co-wrote the screenplay of ‘Gravity’ (2013) with his father. Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, the film depicts the plight of two American astronauts stranded in space. It received widespread critical acclaim and was a massive success at the box office. Nominated for ten Academy Awards, the film garnered seven, including the Best Director Award for Alfonso. At the 2014 BAFTAs, the film won six awards. Cuarón was nominated in two categories, Best Original Screenplay (with Alfonso) and Outstanding British Film (with Alfonso and Heyman), winning the latter. Some of the other awards he received for the film are the 2014 Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, 2014 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form, and 2013 Screenwriters Choice Award (online) for Best Original Screenplay.

In 2013, he wrote, directed, and produced the short film ‘Aningaaq’, a spin-off of ‘Gravity’. In 2015, he released the Mexican-French thriller film ‘Desierto’. Produced by Cuarón, along with Alfonso and Carlos, the movie narrates the tale of a group of Mexican immigrants attempting to cross the border into the United States. It was a modest hit and earned rave reviews from critics. Cuarón was awarded the Silver Goddess Award for Best First Work by Mexican Cinema Journalists and the International Critics' Award at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival for the film.

He is writing and set to direct the action-adventure film ‘Z’.

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Family & Personal Life

Born in 1981, in Mexico City, Mexico, Cuarón is the only son of Alfonso Cuarón Orozco and his first wife, actress Mariana Elizondo. He has a younger half-brother named Diego Cataño (born 1990) through his mother’s marriage to television director Sergio Cataño. Diego is also a film director.

After he divorced Mariana, Alfonso exchanged wedding vows with Italian actress and freelance journalist Annalisa Bugliani in 2001. Cuarón has two half-siblings from this relationship of his father: Tess Bu Cuarón (born 2002) and Olmo Teodoro Cuarón (born 2005). Alfonso and Bugliani parted ways in 2008.

In 2007, Cuarón tied the knot with actress Eireann Harper. They have a son together.

Jonás Cuarón Biography