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Black-and-white drama Roma scooped up the Best Foreign Language Film and the Cinematography honours at the Academy Awards here on Sunday, marking multiple firsts for director Alfonso Cuaron and his home country Mexico.
According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Roma was the ninth film to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film but the first to win it.
In his acceptance speech, Cuaron said he was inspired by films like Jaws, Citizen Kane, The Godfather and Breathless.
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The Cinematography trophy, which preceded the Foreign Language Film win, opened the Oscar account for the movie, which has a total of 10 nominations, tying with The Favourite this year.
Cuaron’s award and speech was also special because Cinematography was one of the categories that almost didn’t air live on the broadcast as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had originally proposed to present during commercial break.
And so, Tyler Perry, before presenting the award, took a jibe at the Academy, saying he was pleased to be presenting the category live on air instead of during a commercial break.
Cuaron thanked his team by saying, “to create a single frame of film, as you well know, requires the work of a lot of people, very hard work”.