Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma won three Academy Awards last night for best director, best foreign language film and best cinematography.
It was Cuarón’s second Oscar win for best director after winning it in 2014 with Gravity.
Fellow Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro presented the award, along with an emotional hug.
Accepting the trophy, Cuarón said, “I want to especially thank you for selecting a movie that portrays the world’s 70 million domestic workers that do not have rights, people relegated to the background. As artists, we must look where others don’t. That responsibility is even more important when others encourage us to look away.”
Mexican actor Diego Luna presented the award for cinematography, congratulating Cuarón and his team for “an honest and vital portrait of Mexico City and the director’s childhood: a story of isolated women, absent men, social class and all things found in love.”
Cuarón paid homage to the foreign films that had inspired him in his childhood, like Citizen Kane and The Godfather, and expressed his thanks to the country of his birth and his children.
“Tonight’s nominees prove that we are all part of the same ocean. I’d like to thank my family, Mexico for being the shore that launched this film, and my children Olmo, Tess and Jonás for being the current that moves me.”
Roma had been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including best actress.
Nominee Yalitza Aparicio, who played the role of the film’s protagonist, was accompanied at the awards ceremony by her mother, whom the actress described as her principal role model in life, attributing her success to her mother’s example.
Mexico celebrated another success last night with Spider-Man, Into the Spider-Verse, which won best animated feature film.
Cruz Antonio Contreras Mastache, 28, originally from Iguala, Guerrero, was part of the film’s animation team.
The young animator, now living in Vancouver, Canada, created the special effects for movement.
Source: Milenio (sp)
