Michael Rowe

Biography

Australian-Mexican screenwriter and director. Born in Australia in 1971. At the age of 23 he moved to Mexico on an impromptu trip. After a few weeks in the country, he ran out of money and began teaching English classes. He later accepted a job with The News newspaper. He enrolled in a diploma program at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC) of the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, and enrolled in the "Vicente Leñero" permanent workshop to develop his interests as a film scriptwriter. He worked at the newspaper El Economista, where he began writing in Spanish to continue financing his studies. In 2003, he graduated with honors from the CCC. In 2007, after unsuccessfully seeking support to shoot his first film, Naturalezas muertas, he decided to make the film on his own. A little later he won a "direct script support" from the Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía (National Institute of Cinematography). From there, he bought a small digital film equipment and quit his job as a travel magazine editor. He directed his first film, Año bisiesto, in 2009, which was awarded the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, and the Ariel for Best First Film in 2011. He also won the 2010 Aleksandar Sasa Petrovic Belgrade Grand Prize and the 2010 FIPRESCI Award, His second film, Manto Acuífero was part of the Official Selection at the Rome Film Festival in 2013. With his third film, Early Winter, he won the Venice Days Award at the Venice Film Festival in 2015, and the Louve d' Or 2015 Montreal. His films have been distributed in more than 30 countries. He is also founder and director of the Itinerant School of Film and Narrative.