Roma recently won the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival.
Mexico has selected Alfonso Cuaron’s Spanish-language memoir film Roma as its foreign-language Oscar entry. The black and white autobiographical drama recently won the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival.
Netflix will begin streaming Roma on December 14 and it’s considering giving the film a limited theatrical run in the US. In Mexico, Roma had an exclusive one-week release in August in order to qualify as a foreign-language Oscar entry.
Cuaron produced, wrote and directed Roma, which he calls his most personal film yet. He also shot the film himself because his regular cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, was unavailable. The film draws on Cuaron’s memories of growing up in Mexico City’s Roma neighborhood. Cuaron created Oscars history in 2014 when he became the first Mexican-born filmmaker to win a directing Academy Award for “Gravity”.
Later, his fellow countrymen and friends Alejandro G Inarritu (The Revenant) and Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) triumphed at the Academy Awards with best picture and directing Oscars. Despite their individual achievements, Mexico has never brought home an Oscar for best foreign-language film.