Diego Quemada-Diez

Born in Burgos, Spain (1969), though a naturalized Mexican citizen for over ten years, he studied cinematography at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. His graduation film (as writer, director, and photographer), Una mesa es una mesa, won the award for Best Cinematography from the American Society of Cinematographers. He secured his first job in the film industry as a camera assistant, with Ken Loach on Land and Freedom (1995). He worked as a camera operator on features directed by Spike Lee, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Tony Scott, and Fernando Meirelles, among others.

In 2006, he premiered his second short film as a writer and director, I Want to Be a Pilot, which won over fifty international awards following its appearance at the Sundance Film Festival. That same year, he directed his short documentary La Morena in Mexico, which competed at the Morelia International Film Festival. In 2010, he received a grant from the Cinéfondation to participate in L’Atelier at the Cannes Film Festival, where he launched his debut feature, La jaula de oro (The Golden Dream), which premiered in 2013 as part of the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes; there, it won the prize for best cast, the Gillo Pontecorvo Award, and the François Chalais Honorable Mention Prix. Thus far, his first feature has won 76 national and international prizes, including nine Ariel Awards from the Mexican Academy of Film and the prize for best Ibero-American film at the first Fénix Awards.

Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia