“Roma” Takes Home Some Hardware at the 2019 Oscars

The 2019 Academy Awards promised to be a big event for Alfonso Cuarón, with his film Roma nominated for a grand total of ten awards at Sunday night’s ceremony. After seeing some big wins leading up to Oscar night, Cuarón and his team had every reason to be hopeful of some recognition.

The critically acclaimed film was recognized with nominations in big categories such as Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress in a Leading Role as well as technical categories including Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing.

Ultimately, Roma took home the award for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, and Cuarón won the awards for Best Director and Best Cinematography.

The award-winning film was inspired by Cuarón’s memories of his own childhood in 1970s Mexico City and is in a mixture of Spanish and Mixtec – unusual for a Best Picture nominee. In his acceptance speech for the Best Cinematography award, Cuarón referred to his personal connection to the film and acknowledged the role of his predecessors, especially cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki in influencing his art.

If this film was created by my own memories, this film was crafted through the memories of what the great masters of cinematography have given to us.

When accepting the award for Best Director, Cuarón stated, “I would like to thank the Academy for recognizing a film centered around an indigenous woman,” and thanked actresses Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira, who were nominated respectively for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role, saying that “they are the film.”

This is Cuarón’s second Academy Award win for directing and his first for cinematography. With these wins, he became the first person to win Oscars for directing and cinematography on the same film.

Although it was Cuarón’s big night, he wasn’t the only wizarding alumnus to have a film recognized at this year’s awards. Ciarán Hinds’ (Aberforth Dumbledore) film First Man won the award for Visual Effects, while Zoë Kravitz’s (Leta Lestrange) Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won Best Animated Feature Film.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!