Alejandro González Iñárritu's first feature film, Amores perros, world-premiered at the 2000 Cannes International Film Festival. There, the film was honored with the Grand Prix among the Critics Week selections that year. As director of the film, he was nominated for an Academy Award when the film became a Best Foreign-Language Film nominee the following year.

Among the other honors that he and the film received were a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign-Language Film; a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Foreign-Language Film; the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign-Language Film; the London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director; and awards from the Bogota, Chicago, Cuba, Edinburgh, Flanders, Moscow, San Sebastian, Sao Paulo, Toronto, and Tokyo International Film Festivals. In addition, the film swept the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences Silver Ariel Awards (Mexicos equivalent of the Oscars) with 13 wins.

In 2001, he produced and directed Powder Keg, a short film for the BMW series that also featured new works from Wong Kar-wai, Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie, and the late John Frankenheimer, among others. Powder Keg won three Clio Awards and ranked #2 on Time Magazines list of best advertising films.

In 2002, Irritu directed a short film for inclusion in the multipart feature 110901, which received a Csar Award nomination. The other filmmakers from around the world who responded to the horrific events of September 11th, 2001 by contributing to the project were Sean Penn, Youssef Chahine, Amos Gitai, Shohei Imamura, Claude Lelouch, Ken Loach, Samira Makhmalbaf, Mira Nair, Idrissa Ouedraogo, and Danis Tanovic.

Earlier in his career, after working extensively in radio as a deejay, producing international rock concerts, and composing jingles and scores for films in Mexico City, Irritu became creative director of Televisa, Mexicos largest television network. Simultaneously, he founded Grupo Z (Z Film, Z Advertising, and Z Audio), which is one of the most prestigious media companies in Mexico, producing feature films, short films, advertising campaigns, TV, and radio.