'Roma' wins three Oscars, including Best Director

Nominated for Best Actress: Yalitza Aparicio - For her first time acting, and as someone who doesn't consider herself an actress, Aparicio has already received an Oscar nomination of the highest order for her performance as a maid. She was also nominated for Best Actress at the Critics' Choice Awards and received the New Hollywood Award at HFA.

6 / 30 Fotos

Nominated for Best Supporting Actress: Marina De Tavira - Adding to the unfortunately short list of Latina actresses in the Oscar nominees is Aparicio's costar, Marina De Tavira, for her performance as Sofía. It's her first ever Oscar nomination as well.

7 / 30 Fotos

Nominated for Best Original Screenplay - Along with directing, producing, and co-editing, Cuarón also wrote the film. Aside from the Oscar nods, it's been nominated for Best Screenplay at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and at the Critics' Choice Awards.

8 / 30 Fotos

Nominated for both Sound Mixing & Sound Editing -

A team of more than 40 people worked on the sound mixing and editing for the film, which was especially remarkable as Cuarón decided to shoot on location in Mexico City instead of using a soundstage, and it's earned them not one but two Oscar nominations. Pictured is Ribera de San Cosme Avenue and Lauro Aguirre Street, where the Corpus Christi massacre occurred in 1971.

(Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 4.0)

9 / 30 Fotos

Nominated for Production Design -

Eugenio Caballero now has three nominations under his belt, one from each of the Academy Awards, Critics' Choice Awards, and BAFTAs. Cuarón also reportedly gathered 70% of the furniture for the house in the film from different family members all around Mexico. Pictured is 22 Tepeji Street, Colonia Roma—the house where the movie was filmed.

(Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 4.0)

10 / 30 Fotos

If you haven't already seen it... - 'Roma' is a vivid and detailed portrait of a maid's journey while working for an upper-middle-class family, set against domestic and political turmoil in 1970s Mexico.

11 / 30 Fotos

Trivia! -

Every scene of the film was shot on location, almost exactly where the events depicted took place, or else on sets that were exact replicas. Pictured is 22 Tepeji Street, Colonia Roma. The original house of Cuarón's family is located opposite the filming location house.

(Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 4.0)

12 / 30 Fotos

Cuarón's intimate ties - Clearly this film is nothing like his past work (which includes 'Gravity,' 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,' and 'Y Tu Mamá También') but that may be due to his close connection with the story.

13 / 30 Fotos

Cuarón's intimate ties - The starring character, Cleo, is closely based on Liboria “Libo” Rodríguez, who raised Cuarón from the time he was nine months old, and who is still alive and a part of his family. He estimates 90% of the scenes are from his memory.

14 / 30 Fotos

Who is Yalitza Aparicio? - Aparicio is making history as the fourth Latin American to be nominated in Best Actress, but not too long ago she was just a 24-year-old graduate on her way to becoming a school-teacher, living in one room with her family in rural Mexico.

15 / 30 Fotos

Her big break - Her sister pushed her to audition when the casting crew came to the southern town of Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, Mexico, the same state where Libo grew up. She'd never dreamed of being an actress, but her very pregnant sister reportedly urged her to go in her place so that she could tell her what an audition was like.

16 / 30 Fotos

Naturally, she was nervous - Playing a character that is so close to the mastermind behind the film, a director whose legacy she previously had no idea about, is a scary prospect, but she found she related to the character's perseverance and she also saw her own mother in Cleo, who was similarly a maid. She even met Libo, though the muse kept her story under wraps at first...

17 / 30 Fotos

Everything was as fresh and genuine as possible - Cuarón purposely withheld the script and story from his cast, shooting everything in chronological order, feeding them lines bit by bit, all so that each scene was as fresh and authentic as possible. Each actor would also reportedly receive contradictory directions and explanations, resulting in chaos, a simulacrum of life.

18 / 30 Fotos

Aparicio doesn't actually know how to swim - That incredible ending scene at the beach displays Aparicio's genuine fear as she admitted to Variety that she doesn't actually know how to swim and “the ocean's vastness scared me.”

19 / 30 Fotos

Cleo and Adela are real-life best friends - Cuarón cast Aparicio's best friend, Nancy Garcia, as Cleo's fellow maid and roommate, Adela, to make their relationship more convincing, but also to make Aparicio feel more comfortable on set.

20 / 30 Fotos

Controversy about subtitles - When Netflix decided to offer Iberian Spanish subtitles for his Mexican-Spanish language film, Cuarón took great offense, calling it “parochial, ignorant and offensive to Spaniards themselves.”

21 / 30 Fotos

Danger on set - In November 2016, a film crew of 'Roma' was assaulted and robbed while setting up a shot in Mexico City. Reports say crew members were attacked by people posing as local authorities, and several were hospitalized, with their cellphones, wallets, and jewelry stolen.

22 / 30 Fotos

The delivery scene was shot once - That lengthy, high-tension scene was achieved in just one take. And to make it even more astounding, the doctors and nurses were real, not actors, who added a whole extra layer of authenticity.

23 / 30 Fotos

Controversy about releasing the film on Netflix - Cuarón has been quite vocal about his support for streaming services, especially since 2017 when the Cannes Film Festival decided not to let films done exclusively for streaming services participate in the festival, claiming that they want to preserve the traditional way of watching and making films.

24 / 30 Fotos

Controversy about releasing the film on Netflix - In 2018, Netflix announced a boycott of the Cannes festival, and 'Roma' instead went to the Venice festival (where it saw great success). Cuarón fights for films made for streaming services largely because they're more accessible to everyone, and he credits part of the international success of his film to its widespread accessibility on the platform.

25 / 30 Fotos

Named best film of 2018 - 'Roma' was chosen by TIME magazine as the best movie of 2018 and described as "an ode to the power of memory, as intimate as a whisper and as vital as the roar of the sea."

26 / 30 Fotos

It's a Guillermo del Toro and Pedro Almodóvar favorite - While introducing the film at a screening at the New York Film Festival, Guillermo del Toro named 'Roma' one of his top five favorite films of all time. Pedro Almodóvar also endorsed 'Roma' by naming it the best movie of the 2018. That's no small praise.

27 / 30 Fotos

This is Cuarón's chef-d'œuvre - He's reportedly been talking about making this film since 2006, and he's stated that 'Roma' is a story that drew out and highlighted emotions that have been present since the moment he decided to be a director.

28 / 30 Fotos

'Roma' is 'Amor' - The fact that the neighborhood where the film takes place and after which it's named, Colonia Roma, is the Spanish word for love spelled backwards speaks volumes about the film's multi-layered love present among the family and particularly between the women, which Cuarón and the cast has said is at the center of this story.

29 / 30 Fotos

You might see Aparicio in another film soon - She has said that she wants to continue acting, and despite delivering an Oscar-nominated performance Aparicio insists, "of course I would need to take acting classes."

30 / 30 Fotos

'Roma' wins three Oscars, including Best Director

The film earned 10 nominations at this year's Academy Awards

25/02/19 | StarsInsider

MOVIES Oscars

'Roma' has just won three Oscars: Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Cinematography. The Mexican film is brimming with fascinating trivia, including controversies and intimate details of the plot and cast. Click through to get the scoop on this award-winning film.