Vicente Leñero

Playwright and narrator. Studied Engineering at UNAM and Journalism at Escuela Carlos Septién García. Director of Revista de Revistas; deputy director of Proceso. His plays Pueblo rechazado, Compañero, La carpa, Alicia tal vez, Pelearán diez rounds, Hace ya tanto tiempo, Señora, La noche de Hernán Cortés, La mudanza and Nadie sabe nada, among others, have been premiered. Reporter and director of Excélsior, Proceso and Revista de Revistas. Fellow of the Instituto de Cultura Hispánica de Madrid, 1956; of the CME, 1961 and 1964; and of the Guggenheim Foundation, 1967. Member of the SNCA, as creator emeritus, since 1994. Member of the Mexican Academy of Language since 2010. First and second place in the National University Short Story Contest 1958. Winner of the Biblioteca Breve Award 1963 for Los albañiles. Juan Ruiz de Alarcón Award for the best play premiered in Mexico 1979 for La mudanza. Mazatlán Literature Award 1987 for Puros cuentos. Awards for the best play of the year granted by the Agrupación de Periodistas Teatrales and El Heraldo 1988 for Nadie sabe nada. National Literature Award Juan Ruiz de Alarcón 1992 for his career as a playwright. Fernando Benítez National Cultural Journalism Award 1997. Xavier Villaurrutia Award 2000 for La inocencia de este mundo. National Prize of Sciences and Arts, in Literature and Linguistics, 2001. Salvador Toscano Medal 2008, awarded by the Cineteca Nacional, the Carmen Toscano Foundation and the Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in recognition of his work as a film screenwriter. Letras de Sinaloa Award 2009. Bellas Artes Medal in 2011, for his career as a playwright. Presea Caridad Bravo Adams, awarded by SOGEM, in 2014.

Works

Amores Perros

A fatalistic car crash in Mexico city sets off a chain of events in the lives of three people: a supermodel, a young man wanting to run off with his sister-in-law, and a homeless man.

Release Date2000-06-16

DepartmentCrew

JobThanks

Vote Count2946

Life Sentence

After being released from jail, "Tarzan" Lira seeks to rebuild his life as a bank employee. Unfortunately, it might not be as easy as he thinks.

Release Date1979-08-09

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count29

The Blue Room

A couple meet each other often in a motel room.

Release Date2002-05-04

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count62

Herod's Law

In the 1940s, a small Mexican town has seen its last three mayors assassinated in rapid succession. A naive janitor is recruited to become the new mayor, and he believes he will modernize the little town and usher in a reign of peace. But the system corrupts him very quickly, and he takes to abusing his power while associating with an unscrupulous assortment of opportunists, hypocrites and criminals.

Release Date1999-11-09

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count208

La mudanza

Between chargers, noise and improvisedly placed furniture, a couple experiences a violent marital crisis, ignoring that they are observed by many characters that will soon face them with their own demons. Inspired by a work by Vicente Leñero, Gabriel Retes orchestrates a portrait without concessions of the hell of the marriage institution and love chaos, made in video format in 1990 and completed by the filmmaker more than a decade later.

Release Date1990-01-01

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count4

A Map for a Talk

An intimate play evolving around three main characters: an adult woman, her mother and her female lover. Two days in their lives occur in two opposing setting, everyday life in the demanding metropolis of Santiago and a sailboat trip cruising a beautiful bay. The three character remain trapped in a claustrophobic confrontation. The film dialogs with 'Knife in the water' from the side of women, an intense character drama with many involuntary humorous scenes. The eternal, never completed quest of seeing and recognizing the other as they are or, at least, as they want to be seen.

Release Date2012-06-13

DepartmentWriting

JobScript Consultant

Vote Count5

Miroslava

The beautiful and popular movie star Miroslava is depressed tonight. As she prepares her suicide, her entire life is revealed on screen in a disturbing portrait of a lonely woman.

Release Date1993-04-03

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count12

Amor que mata

Diego is a young musician who lives the terrible death of his uncle to AIDS. While in his deep depresion he meets Gabriela, which brings back a smile to his face. Just when life seems more promising than ever, one beutiful night death once again took a toll on his life. It seems as though the phantoms of the past are never going to let him go.

Release Date1994-01-01

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count3

Puras mentiras

Life is giving Benito the best stories for his first work without knowing what the end of this love story will be, which he writes and lives in his own flesh, hiding all reality and making this the best story of his life.

Release Date2013-01-01

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

El manantial del milagro

Release Date1974-01-01

DepartmentWriting

JobOriginal Story

Episode Count209

Vote Count1

Midaq Alley

Heated tempers, frustrated desires and dashed hopes plague a diverse group of individuals whose lives cross paths in Mexico City. There is the bar-owner's son, Chava, who yearns to emigrate to America. A poor barber, Abel, is madly in love with the gorgeous Alma, who eventually becomes a high-class prostitute. Finally, there is Susanita, the desperate spinster who pursues many love affairs in hopes of finding a husband.

Release Date1995-05-05

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count72

The Crime of Padre Amaro

Sent to Mexico to help take care of aging Father Benito, young Father Amaro faces a moral challenge when he meets a 16-year-old girl who he starts an affair with. Likewise, the girl's mother had been having an affair with Father Benito. Father Amaro must choose between a holy or sinful life.

Release Date2002-10-01

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count311

Aunt Alejandra

The arrival of Aunt Alejandra triggers a series of nightmarish events that will put the life of a family at mysterious risk.

Release Date1980-02-28

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count46

Pelearán diez rounds

When Bobby Terón decides to return to the ring after retiring as a boxer, he faces opposition from his wife. While his wife believes that Bobby is not fit to fight, his manager Hernandez assures him that the boxer will regain his prestige. Hernandez arranges a fight, only this time he is not willing to submit to an unfair decision like the one that ended his pupil's career and decides to play with the same weapons.

Release Date1991-01-01

DepartmentWriting

JobStory

Vote Count1

Beyond the Sky

Malboro and Cucu, the starring characters, are two brothers who split after the older one, Malboro, went to prison five years. One day he is set free, willing to return to his life. Cucu is the younger brother, who has become a boxer with possible success, if only the beater he keeps somewhere inside, didn't arise in the worst moments. The relationship between the two brothers is somehow ambiguous, there's something unclear that caused Malboro's arrest. To complete the triangle is Uncle Jesus who has been like a father to them; a retired boxer who's always thinking about his past. Sara is Malboro's great love, a woman full of shame and resented after almost leaving her whole life behind to follow Malboro, but he failed in their attempt to run away because that same night, he got arrested by Rojas. Rojas is Sara's husband, a police officer who hates Malboro and will do anything to get him out of his way...

Release Date2007-01-12

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count67

The Cousin

A married woman, who's husband leaves her alone way too many times, is seduced by a junior spoiled young man, leading her into the fullfillment of her unsatisfied needs.

Release Date2018-02-02

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count30

Mariana Mariana

The story runs in the 1940s Mexico City. A schoolboy (Carlos) falls in love with his best friend's mother (Mariana). Carlos is impressed because this family is not like the ordinary mexican families of the time, because they have many expensive American things, although they are not rich. The drama begins when Carlos gets out of school to go to declare his love to Mariana, and is discovered by his teachers.

Release Date1987-08-05

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count22

The Bricklayers

When a worker is found murdered on the construction side, the investigation swiftly turns from things criminal to the political circumstances surrounding the building itself. Widespread corruption and neglect by the builder himself are seen to have brought the situation about. Much of the movie is filmed using hand-held cameras, and the majority of the dialogue is in the difficult-to-understand and very slangy Spanish dialect of Mexico City's bricklayers.

Release Date1976-12-23

DepartmentWriting

JobNovel

Vote Count33

From Inside

Carmen Altamirano was buried alive at 2 years old by her parents. 30 years later, she will have to dig up her past.

Release Date2023-11-02

DepartmentWriting

JobStory

Tony Tijuana

Release Date1990-01-01

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

File of Attempted Murder

Tells the story behind an assassination attempt perpetrated in 1897, by a dipsomaniac man, against the President of the Mexican Republic, General Porfirio Diaz.

Release Date2010-08-27

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count11

Los de abajo

In this highly regarded Mexican war film, peasant Demetrio Macias leads a band of outlaws in a revolt against the Federales during the Mexican Revolution.

Release Date1977-11-15

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count8

The She Wolf's Orgy

A woman with a troubled past introduces lust, depravity and sex to a religious commune.

Release Date1972-11-01

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count6

Mystery

A soap opera actor is mixed in a real drama very similar to what he represents in his work.

Release Date1980-11-30

DepartmentWriting

JobAuthor

Vote Count18

La secta del sargon

Release Date1990-01-01

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count3

The Cry of the Turtle

Two young, millionaire couples are commemorating the birthday of one of them. Jealousy, desire and ambition will end in tragedy and a dead man.

Release Date1975-01-30

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count13

Las grandes aguas

Public-works engineer entrusted with a big project faces problems in his home life and conflicts with a corrupt local businessman.

Release Date1980-12-04

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count9

Contracorriente

Three young women live, suffer and enjoy themselves in Ciudad Juárez. They are alike in terms of their origin, they all come from the lower classes, however, Chuya, Cata and "La Güera" have their own environments, their own families and their own personalities. This triangular story shows some crucial moments in their lives: their first love, their first sexual encounter, their first pregnancy, their first disappointment, which take place in a reality that is sordid, but always vital.

Release Date2006-03-27

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count10

Cuando tejen las arañas

Young woman tries to discover the family secret that led to her father being murdered, and she gradually is manipulated into a lesbian relationship.

Release Date1979-03-22

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count9

The Monastery of the Vultures

In a remote Mexican monastery, a Father Prior subjects young seminarians to psychoanalysis to test their vocation. As sessions peel back secrets and doubts, faith, desire, and authority collide.

Release Date1973-10-11

DepartmentWriting

JobTheatre Play

Vote Count6