Quick Facts
Biography
Ernesto Contreras (born 1969 in Veracruz, Veracruz) is a Mexican film director and screenwriter.
Graduate from the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos of the UNAM. His shorts have received several national and international awards, like the Ariel Award of the Mexican Academy for Best Short Film in 2004, for The non-invited.
In 2007, Párpados azules (Blue Eyelids), his first feature-film received the Best Iberoamerican Film and Script awards, as well as the Mezcal Award of the Young Jury in the XXII Guadalajara International Film Festival. He was later nominated for the Camera d’Or of the 60th Cannes Film Festival competing in the official selection of the 46th International Critics' Week. In September of that same year, he received a Special Mention in the San Sebastián International Film Festival, and he also received the National University Distinction Award in Artistic Creation. In 2008, the Sundance Film Festival and the Miami International Film Festival gave him both a Special Jury Prize, and he received the Ariel Award of the Mexican Academy for Best First Work.
Paralleling, he produced and coedited the feature documentary The Last Heroes of the Peninsula, by director José Manuel Cravioto, with whom he is currently codirecting a documentary on the Mexican rock band Café Tacvba’s 20th Anniversary.
Filmography
- Café Tacvba (in production)
- Párpados azules (2007)
Short films
- Los no invitados (2003)
- El milagro (2000)
- Gente pequeña (2000)
- Ondas hertzianas (2000)
- Sombras que pasan (1998)
- Sueño polaroid (1997)
Awards
IV Concurso Nacional De Cortometraje - 1998
- The IV National Contest for Short Films
- El milagro
Guadalajara International Film Festival - 2007
- Best Iberoamerican Film
- Best Iberoamerican Script
- Best Mexican Film, by the Young Jury
- Best Director, Script, Actor, Actress, and Film, by Press
- For Párpados azules
Sundance Film Festival - 2008
Special Jury Prize
- For Párpados azules
Miami International Film Festival - 2008
Special Jury Award
- For Párpados azules
Ariel Award - 2008
Silver Ariel
- Best First Work (Mejor Opera Prima)
- For Párpados azules
Alba International Film Festival - 2008
- Premio Subti and Premio Signis - Gazzetta d’Alba
Guadalajara Film Festival - 2000
- Mayahuel for Best Short Film
- For El Milagro
Guadalajara Film Festival - 1999
- Mayahuel for Best Short Film
- For Ondas hertzianas
Nominations
Cannes Film Festival - 2007
- Camera d'Or 60th
- For Párpados azules
Tokyo International Film Festival - 2007
Grand Prize
- For Párpados azules