Patricia Cardoso
Patricia Cardoso is a Colombian-American director, writer, and producer, who has directed a wide range of acclaimed films and episodes for the screen. She was the first Latinx woman to receive a Sundance Audience Award and a Student Academy Award®. Cardoso's feature film Real Women Have Curves was a box office and critical success and has become a landmark of Latinx cinema.
Patricia Cardoso | |
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Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles [1] Universidad de los Andes (Colombia). |
Occupation | Film director Screenwriter Producer[2] |
Cardoso is a graduate of UCLA's film school and a Fulbright Scholar. She studied anthropology at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá.
In 2017, Cardoso was invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in the Directors Branch.[3][4]
In 2018, Ava DuVernay tapped her to direct an episode of her acclaimed television series Queen Sugar.
In 2019, Real Women Have Curves was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Film Registry "as a cinematic treasure and worthy of preservation as part of America’s patrimony".[5]
Early life
As a child Cardoso wrote and illustrated home-made picture-books. Only when she became a film student at UCLA she realized these books were story boards.[6][7] Cardoso's first film was a humorous documentary titled Vacas Flacas y Vacas Gordas (Skinny Cows and Fat Cows) about the famine and feast periods her family endured. Due to the lack of technology in her household the film was made with toothpicks, paper, and cardboard.[6][7]
Career
At UCLA film school she was at the top of her class earning all major directing awards at the school: the Colin Higgins Foundation Award in Film, the Lynn Weston Fellowship in Film, and the Verna Fields Award.
Cardoso’s directing credits include episodes of The Society, All Rise, and Tales of the City and the featureTeresa —the largest box office for a woman director in Colombia.
Cardoso was the first Latinx woman to win a Sundance Film Festival Dramatic Audience Award[8] and to receive a Student Academy Award.[9][10][11][12]
Cardoso attributes her anthropological background to the respect she has for every character in her films, the depth and dimension of her character development, and for the rigorous research she does during pre-production to create reality and truthfulness in her movies.[6][7]
Cardoso's Real Women Have Curves broke many conventions of traditional Hollywood filmmaking and became a landmark in American independent film. According to Entertainment Weekly, it is "one of the most influential movies of the 2000s," and cast "a wide shadow over the new generation of filmmakers to come." The movie is cited for showing "the impact a movie could have in the culture," and it is acclaimed for its nuanced portrayal of its characters and of Los Angeles.
Filmography
El Regalo
Written and produced by Dago García and directed by Cardoso, the film stars Cesar Mora, Ella Becerra, Javier Ramirez and Margalida Castro.
The Toymaker
Directed and produced by Cardoso the documentary film is about Horst Damme, a blind German toymaker, who has lived in Bogotá since 1936 when he arrived with his family as refugees from Nazi-Germany.
La Clave
Directed by Cardoso and written by Josefina Lopez the short film tells the story of a family faced with the mental illness of their daughter. The film stars Mariana Montes, Luis Enrique, and Ivette Gonzales. The film won the First Place Drama Short for the United Latino Film Festival, a Gold CINDY Award, a Robert Townsend Social Issues Award and Merit Special Mention at The Best Shorts Competition.[13]
Meddling Mom
Directed by Cardoso, written by Nina Weiman and produced by Frank Konigsberg and Patricia Clifford, Meddling Mom was the first Latino film ever made by Hallmark Channel. The film stars Sonia Braga, as Carmen Vera, a ceramics art dealer and meddling mother pursued by a charming dance professor played by Tony Plana. The film was nominated to an IMAGEN Award for Sonia Braga's strong performance. Carmen Vega is guilty of being a meddling mom. Her crimes include slipping into daughter Yolanda's home to leave behind "how-to" books on starting a family and manipulating daughter Ally into a doomed relationship with her best friend Marisol's son Pablo. Now Carmen Vega, notorious mother of good intentions, is about to get a crash course in butting out and maybe she'll even find a romantic life of her own. The film was shot on location at Jose Vera's Fine Arts and Antiques wonderful store in Eagle Rock.[14]
Ro
Cardoso directed a six-episode web series for YouTube channel WIGS. Ro, a young woman in parole, played by Melonie Diaz, goes to a speed dating bar trying to rebuild his life after prison. The series was produced by Rodrigo García, John Avnet and Jake Avnet. The series is written by talented Mattie Brickman and stars along Diaz William Mapother, Jonathan Tucker and Christopher Carley.[15]
Lies in Plain Sight
Cardoso directed the remake of the Israeli movie Out of Sight. Written by Teena Booth based on Noa Greenberg's script the film stars Rosie Perez, Martha Higadera, Chad Michael Murray and Benito Martinez. It was produced by Frank Konigsberg and Yan Fisher-Romanovsky for Sony Television and Lifetime. The story of Eva and her blind cousin Sofia (Martha Higadera), who were inseparable as children, with Eva the loyal companion who helped Sofia through her tough adolescent years. When Eva suddenly commits suicide, Sofia rushes home to her father, Hector (Benito Martinez), and Eva's parents, Marisol (Rosie Perez) and Rafael (Yul Vásquez), to find answers. But the more she delves into Eva's life, questioning her past boyfriend's Ethan (Chad Michael Murray) and Christian (Christoph Sanders), the more Sofia realizes that their childhood was actually filled with dark, disturbing secrets. The film received a NAMIC Vision Award, an IMAGEN Award for Martha Higadera's performance and was selected as Lifetime Movie of the Year in 2011. It was nominated to an NAACP Image Award for Rosie Perez's performance.[16]
Awards
Year | Award | Festival | Nominated work | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1990 | Premio Mesquite Best First Work | San Antonio CineFestival | The Air Globes (Cartas al Niño Dios) | Won |
Premio Mesquite Best Short Film | Won | |||
Primer Premio | Concurso Nacional de Cortometrajes | Won | ||
Premio Especial del Jurado Hernando Salcedo Silva | Concurso Nacional de Cortometrajes [17] | Won | ||
1996 | Festival Prize | Black Maria Film and Video Festival | The Water Carrier (El Reino de los Cielos) | Won |
Crystal Heart Award | Heartland Film Festival | Won | ||
DGA Student Film Award | Student Academy Awards[18] | Won | ||
Gold Medal | Won | |||
Grand Prize | Angelus Student Film Festival | Won | ||
Golden Eagle Award | CINE | Won | ||
Premio Mesquite Best Narrative | San Antonio CineFestival | Won | ||
UNESCO Igualada Institut Català Award | UNESCO | Won | ||
MacArthur Foundation Subtitling Grant | Toronto International Film Festival | Won | ||
Ida Lupino Student Award | Directors Guild of America | Won | ||
Harry Kurnitz Creative Writing Competition | Dashew Center - UCLA | Won | ||
Golden Reel Award | Motion Picture Sound Editors | Nominated | ||
2002 | Audience Award | Sundance Film Festival | Real Women Have Curves | Won |
Grand Jury Prize | Nominated | |||
Premio Eroski de la Juventud (Youth Award) | Festival de Cine de San Sebastián | Won | ||
Humanitas Prize Sundance Feature Film | Humanitas Prize | Won | ||
Excellence in Filmmaking | National Board of Review | Won | ||
Silver Plate Audience Choice Award | Chicago International Film Festival | Won | ||
Excellence in Film Latino Spirit Award | California State Legislature | Won | ||
Planned Parenthood Award | Planned Parenthood | Won | ||
California Governor's Commendation | Governor of California | Won | ||
2011 | Best Creative Media Film | Poppy Jasper Film Festival | Deep Blue Breath | Won |
Best Young Actor for Clay Beabout | Action on Film International Film Festival | Won | ||
Best Short Film | Tampa Independent's Film Festival | Won | ||
2011 | NAMIC Vision Award | NAMIC Vision Award | Lies in Plain Sight | Won |
Best Actor for Martha Higadera | Imagen Awards | Won | ||
Movie of the Year | Lifetime (TV Network) | Won | ||
Best Actor for Rosie Perez | NAACP Image Awards | Nominated | ||
2013 | Best Actor for Sonia Braga | Imagen Awards | Meddling Mom | Nominated |
2015 | First Place Drama Short | United Latino Film Festival | La Clave | Won |
Gold CINDY Award | CINDY Awards | Won | ||
CINDY Social Issues Award | Won | |||
Award of Merit Special Mention | The Best Shorts Competition | Won |
Cardoso received:[19]
- Smithsonian Institution Latino Recognition Award
- Reconocimiento Fulbright a la Excelencia
- UCLA Filmmaker Of The Year Honor
- Hubert Bals Fund for Film Production - International Film Festival Rotterdam
- Visionary Award LA Femme Film Festival
- California Governor's Commendation
References
- "Patricia Cardoso". UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. UCLA. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
- Buchanan, Jason. "Patricia Cardoso Biography". New York Times. New York Times. Retrieved August 4, 2015.
- Joey Nolfi, New Academy Members Speak on Diversity Push, Entertainment Weekly, July 3, 2017, online. Retrieved August 2, 2017
- Ella Ceron, The Academy Announces Diverse Class of 2017 - but Is It Enough?, Teen Vogue, June 29, 2017, online. Retrieved August 2, 2017
- Chow, Andrew R. (December 11, 2019). "See the 25 New Additions to the National Film Registry, From Purple Rain to Clerks". Time. New York, NY. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
- Juan Sebastián Salazar, "El Oscar en la "Tierra del Olvido," El Espectador, 18 de febrero de 2016. Retrieved August 2, 2017
- Daniel Grajales, "Patricia Cardoso, the owner of the Oscar (Patricia Cardoso, la dueña del Oscar)," El Mundo.com, 8 de diciembre de 2013, online. Retrieved August 2, 2017
- Elvis Mitchell, Real Women Have Curves, The New York Times, March 22, 2002.
- Oscar a Película Colombiana, El Espectador, Colombia, 29 de mayo de 1996, 1. Retrieved August 2, 2017
- Juan Guillermo Ramirez, Hollywood premia a una colombiana, El Tiempo, 8 de junio de 1996. Retrieved August 2, 2017
- Patricia Cardoso Semana, Colombia, 4 de junio de 1996. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
- Reina del Oscar La Prensa, Colombia, 30 de mayo de 1996. Retrieved August 2, 2017
- What is La Clave?, La Clave, online. Retrieved: August 2, 2017
- Meddling Mom, Hallmark Movies, online. Retrieved August 2, 2017
- Ro, WIGS, online. Retrieved August 2, 2017
- Lies in Plain Sight, IMDB, online. Retrieved August 2, 2017
- "Cartas al Niño Dios," cortometraje ganador, El Espectador, Colombia, 25 de abril de 1991, 15.
- Andrew Hindes, "Ex-archaeologist mines Oscar gold," Daily Variety, June 11, 1996.
- Make A Film Foundation Mentor. Retrieved April 29, 2013
External links
- Patricia Cardoso on IMDb
- Biography in the HBO web site
- Patricia Cardoso's Aha Moment in Oprah Magazine
- 15 Latino Directors Challenging Hollywood's Huge Diversity Problem
- 15 years later Real Women Have Curves remains one of the most important films for brown girls
- New Academy Members Speak
- El Oscar en la "Tierra del Olvido"
- Una colombiana en el cine americano
- Patricia Cardoso at the Strasberg Institute