Issa Laura López Lozano is a Mexican producer, writer and film director. Eleven Spanish language features have been produced from her scripts, four of them directed by herself. She has won several literary awards, including the National Novel Award granted by Mexico's Institute of Fine Arts and Literature in 2007. In 2017, ''

Tigers Are Not Afraid ''Tigers Are Not Afraid'' ( es, Vuelven, lit=They Return) is a 2017 Mexican crime film, crime-fantasy film, fantasy horror film, with elements of magical realism, written and directed by Issa López. The film is produced by Marco Polo Constandse, ...

'' (''Vuelven'' in Spanish) premiered at

Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of ''The Iron Gi ...

, in Austin, Texas. Written and directed by López, the film received the Best Horror Director Award, and went on to collect fifty-one awards in film festivals around the world, three

Diosas de Plata The Silver Goddesses ( es, Diosas de Plata) is a film award granted annually by the Mexican Film Journalists Association (PECIME) in recognition of professionals and excellence in the Mexican film industry as assessed by the association's voting me ...

, including Best Picture and Best Director, and received ten

Ariel Awards The Ariel Award ( es, Premio Ariel) is an award that recognizes the best of Mexican cinema. Given annually, since 1946, by the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences (AMACC), the award recognizes artistical and technical excel ...

nominations, of which it won two. The film earned multiple positive reviews by major trades and critics, and a "Certified Fresh" rating of 97% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. Currently, López is developing projects with

Guillermo del Toro Guillermo del Toro Gómez (; born October 9, 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and actor. He directed the Academy Award–winning fantasy films ''Pan's Labyrinth'' (2006) and ''The Shape of Water'' (2017), winning the Academy Awards for Be ...

Noah Hawley Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...

and

Jason Blum Jason Ferus Blum "Jason Ferus Blum was born in LA in 1969 to Shirley Neilsen, an art professor, and Irving Blum, an art dealer" (; born 1969) is an American film and television producer. He is the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, whic ...

. She wrote and directed all episodes of the fourth installment of HBO's TV series ''

True Detective ''True Detective'' is an American anthology crime drama television series created and written by Nic Pizzolatto. The series, broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States, premiered on January 12, 2014. Each season of the ...

'', which will air in January 2024, as '' True Detective: Night Country''.

Early life

Issa Laura López Lozano was born in Mexico City, where she was raised by her father after her mother died when she was eight years old. Her father was a semiotics academic and a college professor. During her childhood her family faced economic hardships, since academia is not a high-paying job in Latin America. This was a defining aspect of her life, inspiring much of her later work, since her dad would try to keep her and her sister entertained in spite of their economic situation. Lopez explained in one of her interviews that she, her sister and her dad would "go every weekend on some road trip through Mexico, from small town to small town, sitting to watch kung fu and horror movies in traveling cinemas, eating street food, visiting archeological sites, jungles, deserts and the most haunted little towns in the country". Those memories were the inspiration for many of her stories.

Life and career

Issa López studied Archeology for about two years, until "the pull of cinema was too strong to resist". She abandoned Archeology and enrolled in Mexico's National University Filmschool, where she obtained a BA in Film Directing and Screenwriting. After her BA, she completed a two-year graduate program for dramatic writing. López began co-writing telenovelas and TV shows at Televisa. In 2003, she wrote the film ''Ladies' Night'' which was a box-office success, becoming the 5th biggest grossing Mexican film of 2003 and 2004. López has won several literary awards, including the National Novel Award granted by Mexico's Institute of Fine Arts and Literature. In addition to her literary work, she penned multiple TV shows, some of them reaching the highest audience ratings in Mexican prime-time TV, and wrote the scripts for several film features, three of them produced in Mexico by the Major Hollywood Studios, and two of those directed by herself; ''Efectos Secundarios'' (

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

, 2006) and ''Casi Divas'' (

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio Conglomerate (company), conglom ...

, 2008). In 2015, López shot her third feature as a director, and tenth as a writer, ''Tigers Are Not Afraid.'' In March 2018, ''Todo Mal'', her fourth feature film as a director, 11th as a writer, opened in Mexico. In 2005, López was selected as one of the 50 Latino Impact Players in Entertainment, by ''Variety''. In Mexico, López' movies have ranked among the highest grossing local productions: ''Ladies' Night'' (

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

, 2003) ranked fifth, ''Niñas Mal'' (

, 2007) seventh, and ''Efectos Secundarios'' fifteenth. ''Casi Divas'' opened in first place in the box office and went on to a limited theatrical run in the U.S. ''Casi Divas'' received enthusiastic reviews from ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'', and the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', among others. The film is the only Mexican movie to be scored by acclaimed Hollywood composer

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, Oscars and four Grammy Awards, Grammys, and has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmys and a Tony Awar ...

, who only charged $1 for his extensive work on the film. In 2015, ''600 Millas'', a film with a script co-written by López, was nominated for the Mexican Film Academy Ariel Award for Best Script. In September 2017, ''Tigers Are Not Afraid'' (''Vuelven'' in Spanish) Premiered at Fantastic Fest, in Austin Texas, and received the Best Horror Director Award. Issa López directed, wrote, and was Executive Producer of the film, a dark fable about the children surviving the Mexican drug war, and the ghosts that haunt them. ''Tigers Are Not Afraid'' collected a total of fifty-one awards in Film Festivals around the world, three Diosas de Plata (the Mexican equivalent of the Golden Globes), including Best Picture and Best Director, and has received 10 nominations for the Ariel, (the Mexican Film Academy Award), of which it won two, has earned a large amount of positive reviews by major trades and critics, and a "Certified Fresh" rating of 97% in Rotten Tomatoes. It also got a Best Latin American Director Award in 2019 from NALIP (National Association of Latino Producers) and Fangoria Magazine, specialized in Horror Cinema, awarded it Best Foreign Language Movie in 2020. Stephen King,

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...

and Guillermo Del Toro expressed their enthusiasm for the movie via social media and interviews. Currently, López is working with Guillermo del Toro, who announced that he'd produce Lopez' next film, a haunted western about the werewolf mythology, Searchlight Pictures signed her to write and direct ''The Book of Souls'', to be produced by

, and Blumhouse is developing ''Our Lady of Tears,'' written and directed by López. She will also write, produce and direct the fourth season of cult HBO series ''

''.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards

References

Issa López National novel award, Accessed 5 Nov 2013
Music Hans Zimmer for Casi Divas, Variety, Accessed Nov 5 2013
" Ladies Night, Miravista Films, 2003, Accessed Nov 5 2013
Casi Divas Review by Los Angeles Times, 2009, Accessed Nov 5 2013
Charm School, Sony Pictures, 2007, Accessed Nov 5 2013"" Best Screenplay Award, Los Angeles Latino Film Festival, 2008, Accessed Nov 5 2013
Efectos Secundarios, Awards on

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

, Accessed Nov 5 2013

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Issa Living people Mexican women film directors Film directors from Mexico City 1971 births