Roma, directed by Alfonso Cuaron, became the first Mexican film to win the Best Foreign Language feature Oscar at the 91st Academy Awards on Sunday, scoring a major honor for Netflix, the company that bankrolled the black-and-white movie.
Roma is the ninth nominee from Mexico in that category.
This is the first year that the two supporting categories honor black actors.
In her first nomination ever, vet Regina King won best supporting actress for her role as a fiercely protective mother in If Beale Street Could Talk.
King thanked the late writer James Baldwin, whose novel inspired the film, as well as her mother. “It’s appropriate for me to be standing here, because I’m an example of what it looks like when support and love is poured into someone,” said King, adding “God is good, all the time.”
As predicted, Mahershala Ali picked up his second Academy Award for best supporting actor in Green Book.
He was honored for his portrayal of pianist Don Shirley and previously won for his performance as a sympathetic drug dealer in “Moonlight.” Ali said “Trying to capture Dr. Shirley’s essence pushed me to my ends.”
Green Book has been criticized as inaccurate by Shirley’s family, with the musician’s surviving brother, Dr. Maurice Shirley, calling the film a “symphony of lies.”
