OSCARS 2024
How many Latinos have won an Oscar and who has received the most awards?
Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro was the most recent Latino winner of an Academy Award at the 2023 ceremony.
The Academy Awards, handed out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, are considered the highest honor in cinema anywhere in the word. Prizes are awarded in connection to a number of different aspects related to movie industry, beyond just the films themselves and on-screen performances.
Since 1929, over 3,000 people have received an Oscar statuette, including Latinos who have recently excelled in categories such as Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Cinematography.
Oscar-winning Latinos
Latinos from seven different countries (Argentina, Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Uruguay) have won Oscars over the years. Here’s the full list:
ARGENTINA
Armando Bó
- 2015 - Best Original Screenplay - ‘Birdman’
Eugenio Zanetti
- 1996 - Best Art Direction - ‘Restoration’
Gustavo Santaolalla
- 2006 - Best Original Score - ‘Brokeback Mountain’
- 2007 - Best Original Score - ‘Babel’
Juan José Campanella
- 2010 - Best Foreign Language Film - ‘The Secret in Their Eyes’
Lalo Schifrin
- 2019 - Honorary Award for his professional trajectory
Luis Bacalov
- 1996 - Best Dramatic Score - ‘Il Postino’
Luis Puenzo
- 1986 - Best Foreign Language Film - ‘The Official Story’
Nicolás Giacobone
- 2015 - Best Original Screenplay - ‘Birdman’
Nicolas Schmerkin
- 2010 - Best Animated Short Film - ‘Logorama’
CHILE
Claudio Miranda
- 2013 - Best Cinematography - ‘Life of Pi’
Gabriel Osorio Vargas
- 2016 - Best Animated Short Film - ‘Bear Story’
Pato Escala Pierart
- 2016 - Best Animated Short Film - ‘Bear Story’
Sebastián Lelio
- 2018 - Best Foreign Language Film - ‘A Fantastic Woman’
CUBA
Phil Lord (Born in Miami, Florida, to a Cuban mother)
- 2019 - Best Animated Feature Film - ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’
EL SALVADOR
André Gutffreund
- 1977 - Best Live Action Short Film - ‘In the Region of Ice’
MEXICO
Alejandro González Iñarritu
- 2015 - Best Picture - ‘Birdman’
- 2015 - Best Director - ‘Birdman’
- 2015 - Best Original Screenplay - ‘Birdman’
- 2016 - Best Director - ‘The Revenant’
- 2018 - Special Achievement Award - ‘Flesh and Sand’
Alfonso Cuarón
- 2014 - Best Director - ‘Gravity’
- 2014 - Best Film Editing - ‘Gravity’
- 2019 - Best Director - ‘Roma’
- 2019 - Best Cinematography - ‘Roma’
- 2019 - Best Foreign Language Film - ‘Roma’
Anthony Quinn
- 1953 - Best Supporting Actor - ‘Viva Zapata!’
- 1957 - Best Supporting Actor - ‘Lust for Life’
Beatrice De Alba
- 2003 - Best Makeup - ‘Frida’
Brigitte Broch
- 2002 - Best Art Direction - ‘Moulin Rouge!’
Carlos Cortés
- 2021 - Best Sound - ‘Sound of Metal’’
Edward Carrere
- 1968 - Best Art Direction - Camelot
Emile Kuri
- 1943 - Best Art Direction - ‘The Heiress’
- 1955 - Best Art Direction - ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’
Emmanuel Lubezki
- 2014 - Best Cinematography - ‘Gravity’
- 2015 - Best Cinematography - ‘Birdman’
- 2016 - Best Cinematography - ‘The Revenant’
Eugenio Caballero
- 2007 - Best Art Direction - ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’
Guillermo del Toro
- 2018 - Best Picture - ‘The Shape of Water’
- 2018 - Best Director - ‘The Shape of Water’
- 2022 - Best Animated Feature - ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’
Guillermo Navarro
- 2007 - Best Cinematography - ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’
Jaime Baksht
- 2021 - Best Sound - ‘Sound of Metal’
Lupita Nyong’o (México/Kenya)
- 2014 - Best Supporting Actress - ‘12 Years a Slave’
Manuel Arango
- 1972 - Best Documentary Short - ‘Sentinels of Silence’
- 1972 - Best Live Action Short - ‘Sentinels of Silence’
Yvett Merino (producer)
- 2022 - Best Animated Feature Film - ‘Encanto’
Michelle Couttolenc
- 2021 - Best Sound - ‘Sound of Metal’
PUERTO RICO
Benicio del Toro
- 2001 - Best Supporting Actor - Traffic
José Ferrer
- 1951 - Best Actor - ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’
Rita Moreno
- 1962 - Best Supporting Actress - West Side Story
URUGUAY
Jorge Drexler
- 2005 - Best Original Song - ‘Al otro lado del río’ from the movie ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’
Which Latinos have won the most Academy Awards?
36 Latinos have received Oscars, with Mexican filmmakers Alejandro González Iñarritu and Alfonso Cuarón the most decorated Latinos in the history of the awards having collected five each (four plus a Special Achievement Award in the former’s case). Guillermo del Toro is the most recent recipient, winning his third Oscar for Best Animated Feature last year (for ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’).
This year, Rodrigo Moreno, another Mexican cinematographer, has been nominated in the Best Cinematography category for ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.
Additionally, Chilean quartet Maite Alberdi, Juan de Dios Larrain, Pablo Larrain and Rocio Jadue have been nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category for ‘The Eternal Memory’.