José Alejandro Gómez Monteverde (born 13 July 1977) is a Mexican film director. His first film, ''

Bella Bella is a feminine given name. It is a diminutive form of names ending in -bella. ''Bella'' is related to the Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese and Latin words for beautiful, to the name Belle, meaning ''beautiful'' in French. It increased in ...

'' took top prize at the 2006

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

by winning the “People's Choice Award”. In 2007, Monteverde received the US Citizenship and Immigration Services' " Outstanding American by Choice" Award, which recognizes the achievements of

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

U.S. citizens.

Career

Films

Monteverde wrote and directed ''

'', a film that took top prize at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival by winning the “People's Choice Award”. ''Bella'' was produced by Sean Wolfington,

Eduardo Verástegui José Eduardo Verástegui Córdoba (; born May 21, 1974) is a Mexican producer and actor. He was part of band Kairo and later a solo music career, before he started appearing in Mexican telenovelas and eventually feature films like ''Chasing Papi ...

, Leo Severino, and Denise Pinckley. Monteverde and the filmmakers received honors for ''Bella'' from the Smithsonian and the White House. The Smithsonian Latino Center also honored Monteverde with their "Legacy Award". After US President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

and First Lady

Laura Bush Laura Lane Welch Bush (''née'' Welch; born November 4, 1946) is an American teacher, librarian, memoirist and author who was First Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009. Bush previously served as First Lady of Texas from 1995 to 2000. ...

saw the film, Monteverde was invited to sit with Laura in her private box during the annual

State of the Union The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of each calendar year on the current conditio ...

speech in 2007. Monteverde directed and co-wrote ''

Little Boy "Little Boy" was the type of atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 during World War II, making it the first nuclear weapon used in warfare. The bomb was dropped by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress ''Enola Gay'' p ...

'', a film set during World War II, released in 2015. Monteverde directed and co-wrote '' Sound of Freedom'', starring

Jim Caviezel James Patrick Caviezel Jr. (; born September 26, 1968) is an American film and television actor who played Jesus Christ in ''The Passion of the Christ'' (2004) and starred as John Reese on the CBS series ''Person of Interest'' (2011–2016). He ...

and

Mira Sorvino Mira Katherine Sorvino (; born September 28, 1967) is an American actress. She won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Woody Allen's ''Mighty Aphrodite'' (1995). She also starred in the films ...

. It was shot in 2018 and was set to be released by 2020, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, its release date was pushed back and it has yet to be released.

Accolades

In 2022, Monteverde was given a Humanitarian Award by the

Coronado Island Film Festival The Coronado Island Film Festival (CIFF) is an annual film festival based in Coronado, a resort city across the San Diego Bay from downtown San Diego. It consists of a four-day festival in November – and a monthly year-round "Classic Movie Series ...

Personal life

Monteverde married American actress

Ali Landry Ali Germaine Landry (born July 21, 1973) is an American actress, model, and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss USA 1996. She played Rita Lefleur on the UPN sitcom ''Eve'' and was the Doritos Girl in a 1998 Super Bowl commercial. In 1998, s ...

on 8 April 2006 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. They have three children: a daughter born in July 2007, and sons born in October 2011, and July 2013. Their son Valentin Francesco's middle name was inspired by

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

, as Monteverde and Landry met him while she was pregnant and he blessed the baby. His father, Juan Manuel Gómez Fernández, and brother, Juan Manuel Gómez Monteverde, were found dead with fatal head wounds in Pueblo Viejo, in the Mexican state of Veracruz, on September 19, 2015, approximately two weeks after they were kidnapped from their home in nearby Tamaulipas. On November 9, 2015, six people were arrested for the kidnapping and murder of Gómez Fernández and Gómez Monteverde. The suspects were allegedly holding six Central American migrants hostage at the time of their arrest, according to the Chief of the

Mexican Federal Police The Federal Police ( es, Policía Federal, PF), formerly known as the (Federal Preventive Police) and sometimes referred to in the U.S. as "Federales", was a Mexican national police force formed in 1999 and folded into the National Guard in 2019. ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Monteverde, Alejandro Gomez 1977 births Mexican film directors People from Tampico, Tamaulipas Living people