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It was a groundbreaking night for Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron and the movie, "Roma" at the 91st Academy Awards.
In what turned-out to be a groundbreaking evening for Alfonso Cuaron, at the 91st Academy Awards aka the 'Oscars,' the Mexican filmmaker took home the year’s 'Best Director' Oscar for “Roma,” while also winning 'Best Cinematography.' Meanwhile "Roma" itself became the first Mexican film to win an Oscar in the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category.
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"Roma" first premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August 2018, and is unique in that it becomes the first film on a streaming platform (Netflix) to win ‘Best Picture.’
The Playlist reports that Cuaron earned his first Oscar nomination in 2003 with his film "Y Tu Mamá También" for 'Best Original Screenplay.' It wasn’t until 2014 when he would win the Oscar for 'Best Director' for the film “Gravity.” The win was groundbreaking as Cuaron became the first Mexican filmmaker to win an Oscar.
Javier Bardem presented the Oscar to Cuaron for 'Best Foreign Language Film' in Spanish, saying, “There are no borders or walls that stop ingenuity and talent. In each region of the world there are stories that move us and in this edition we celebrate the excellence and importance of the culture and language of different countries."
Celebrating, Cuaron envoked the famous words of the French filmmaker Claude Chabrol, saying "There are no waves, there is only the ocean."
In the first win of the night for "Roma," Cuaron took the Oscar for Best Cinematography, becoming the first DP to score an Academy Award for a movie he also directed. According to Deadline Hollywood, Cuaron shot his own film when frequent collaborator Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki wasn’t available and noted, “It’s very well known that Billy Wilder had in his office a sign that said ‘What would Lubitsch have done?’ For me it was ‘What would Chivo have done?”
Deadline Hollywood reported that he’s only the fourth person ever to be nominated personally for four Oscars for the same film and this was his third overall win after previously scoring a 'Directing and Editing' trophy for Gravity.
According to TeleSUR, "Roma is crucial in highlighting the difference in fortunes between the traditional Mexican characters and the middle-class families at a time marked by political upheavel, stemming from the 1968 Massacre of Tlatelolco."
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