Born November 23, 1965 in Mexico City, Mexico, Rodrigo Prieto’s grandfather (Jorge Prieto Laurens) was the mayor of Mexico City and leader of the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico who was later persecuted by the country’s ruler because of political differences.
The grandfather escaped with his family to Texas and then to Los Angeles where Prieto’s father spent his childhood. Prieto’s father then moved to New York where he studied aeronautical engineering at NYU where he met and married Prieto’s mother, an artist.
Rodrigo Prieto was raised in Mexico City where he graduated from Centro de Capacitacion Cinematografica.
Prieto began working as a cinematographer on Mexican films in 1988. His breakout film was 1996’s All of Them Witches for which he won an Ariel award, Mexico’s equivalent of the Oscar. He was subsequently nominated four more times for the Ariel award and won on three of those occasions including one for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s 2000’s film, Amores Perros, and his 2010 film, Biutiful.
In the U.S., Prieto received his first of five nominations to date from the American Society of Cinematographers for Julie Taymor’s 2002 film, Frida. That same year he was director of cinematography on Curtis Hanson’s 8 Mile and Spike Lee’s 25th Hour on which he utilized overexposure and other techniques to create original dream-like images to signify that the events shown on screen are memories or visions.
After lensing Inarritu’s 2003 film, 21 Grams and Oliver Stones’s 2004 film, Alexander, Prieto earned his second ASC nomination and first Oscar nomination for Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain in which he also has a small part opposite Jak Gyllenhaal. Subsequent films included Inarritu’s Babel, Lee’s Lust, Caution, Pedro Almodovar’s Broken Embraces, Kevin Macdonald’s State of Play and Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps through 2010.
Prieto’s work in the second decade of the 21st Century was no less impressive. It included Francis Lawrence’s Water for Elephants, Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo, Ben Affleck’s Oscar winning Argo, Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, Tommy Lee Jones’ The Homesman, and Scorsese’s Silence for which he received his third ASC nomination and his second Oscar nomination for the 2016 film. That same year he served as director of photography on Morten Tyldum’s Passengers.
Prieto received his fourth ASC nomination and third Oscar nomination for Scorsese’s 2019 film, The Irishman. In 2023, he was director of photography on two of the year’s Oscar films nominated for Best Picture, Barbie, and Killers of the Flower Moon, earning his fifth ASC nomination and fourth Oscar nomination for the latter.
When not working on major films, Preito keeps busy photographing shorts including several Taylor Swift videos.
In October 2023, Prieto served as a juror at the Morelia International Film Festival in Michoacan, Mexico.
The very busy cinematographer lives in Los Angeles with his wife Monica and their two daughters. He’s now 58.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005), directed by Ang Lee
Brokeback Mountain isn’t just a movie about gay cowboys. It’s a love story for the ages about two lost souls who come together, break apart, and come back together again. They just happen to both be men. Nominated for 8 Oscars and winner of 3 for Best Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Score, the year’s most honored film was shortchanged at the Oscars where it should also have won for Best Picture, Actor (Heath Ledger), Supporting Actor (Jack Gyllenhaal), Supporting Actress (Michelle Williams), and Prieto’s cinematography for which he received the first of four Oscar nominations to date.
ARGO (2012), directed by Ben Affleck
Nominated for 7 Oscars and winner of 3 for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, and Film Editing, this box office sensation based on the true story of a Hollywood producer working undercover with the CIA to rescue six American hostages in 1979 Iran is also remembered for Affleck’s snub in not being nominated for Best Director. Equally appalling was Prieto’s lack of acknowledgement for some of the year’s most breathtaking cinematography. It may have lost that one to Ang Lee’s Life of Pi in the end, but it should have nominated, along with that and Lincoln, Skyfall, and Django Unchained in place of Anna Karenina.
SILENCE (2016), directed by Martin Scorsese
Prieto began his association with Scorsese with the director’s 2013 film, The Wolf of Wall Street which was nominated for 5 Oscars, winning 1, but nothing for Prieto’s amazing cinematography. Finally, 11 Years after his first nomination, Prieto was nominated for the second time, ironically becoming the lone Oscar nominee of a Scorsese film. One of the director’s best, the film about Portuguese Jesuit priest in 17th Century Japan starring Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, and Liam Neeson deserved more love. Prieto would next receive a third nomination for Scorsese’s The Irishman three years later.
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (2024), directed by Martin Scorsese
Prieto is nominated for an Oscar for the fourth time, the third time for a Scorsese film for which his distinctive cinematography is one of the hallmarks of the film which has been nominated for 10 Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Actress (Lily Gladstone), Supporting Actor (Robert De Niro), Film Editing, Production Design, Costume Design, Original Song, and Score. Set in 1920s Oklahoma, the film is based on the landmark FBI investigation into the murders of the oil rich Osage people by De Niro and his thugs who also include Leonardo DiCaprio as De Niro’s dimwitted nephew married to Osage woman Gladstone.
BARBIE (2023), directed by Greta Gerwig
The box-office phenomenon about Barbie and Ken who leave Barbie Land where they discover the joys and perils of humans, has been nominated for 8 Oscars including Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Ryan Gosling), Supporting Actress (America Ferrera), Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Costume Design, and two songs, “What Was I Made For?” and “I’m Just Ken”, Director Gerwig and star Margot Robbie are considered snubbed although they are both nominated, Robbie as producer, and Gerwig for her screenplay. Prieto, nominated this year for Killers of the Flower Moon, is ironically not considered snubbed.
Rodrigo Pietro’s Oscar Nominations:
Brokeback Mountain (2005) – nominated – Best Cinematography
Silence (2016) – nominated – Best Cinematography
The Irishman (2019) – nominated – Best Cinematography
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) – nominated – Best Cinematography
