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Although the number has increased over time, there are now twenty-four separate categories with golden statuettes doled out every year at the Academy Awards. Commonly, the statuettes are known as Oscars. But of course, these awards didn’t materialize out of thin air. They have a story stretching back to the inception of the association itself.

The first ceremony took place in May 1929, with the behind-the-scenes team working since two years prior to properly get their trademark statuettes into production. And while the figures themselves remain endlessly iconic as symbols of success and recognition in the film industry, many film fans may be unfamiliar with the man from whom the statue was modeled after: Emilio “El Indio” Fernández.

Who Is Emilio Fernandez?

As the most famous filmmaker to be born out of the Mexican Golden Age, he of course has several seminal titles under his directorial belt: take María Candelaria (1943) and Salón México (1949), for instance.

While the name Gabriel Figueroa may not be a familiar one to many, even those with a stronger affinity for filmmaking and the art behind it, New York’s own Film Forum is hoping to change that.

On June 5, the theater began a career spanning retrospective surrounding the work of iconic cinematographer and Mexican film industry legend Gabriel Figueroa. Taking a look at 19 of the photographer’s films, the series is running in conjunction with the new exhibition at El Museo del Barrio, entitled Under The Mexican Sky: Gabriel Figueroa – Art And Film.

Best known as a pioneer of Mexican cinema, primarily with his work alongside director Emilio Fernandez, Figueroa’s work was as varied as they come. His work with Fernandez is without a doubt this retrospective’s highlight, particularly films like Wildflower. One of the many times Mexican cinema’s “Big Four” worked together, the film saw the...

MEXICO CITY -- Film and television actress Marga Lopez, whose brilliant career took off during Mexico's golden age of cinema in the 1940s and '50s, died of heart failure in a Mexico City hospital on Monday. She was 81. Born Catalina Margarita Lopez in Argentina in 1924, she changed her name after moving to Mexico and became a Mexican citizen in 1955. During a career that spanned nearly seven decades, she appeared in more than 100 films, television series and plays. On the screen, Lopez starred in Luis Bunuel's Nazarin and Emilio Fernandez's Salon Mexico.