Bielinsky is a screenwriter and director who started to make his first films while in high school. He first started to study psychology but then changed his mind and continued his education at the films school (Centro de Experimentacion y Realizacion Cinematografica). He graduated in 1983 with the short film The Waiting (La espera). He worked as assistant director on many films, the most famous among them being Eversmile, New Jersey (1989) by Carlos Sorin. His first feature film, crime drama Nine Queens (Nueve reinas, 2000), was very popular and won awards at many international film festivals.  Five years later he directed another noir thriller The Aura (El aura, 2005), again starring Ricardo Darín. A year later he died from a heart attack at the age 47.