Mexican drama Roma received rave reviews at the Venice Film Festival and critics started predicting it will win the grand prize long before awards ceremony rolled around. It turned out they were right since Alfonso Cuarón walked away with the prestigious Golden Lion.
The jury in Venice was headed by Cuarón’s good friend Guillermo Del Toro, who joked he only had one vote like the rest of the jurors, who also picked Roma as their absolute favorite.
Cuarón described the festival in Venice and this coveted award as incredibly important to him and thanked everyone who was a part of his journey. Golden Lion winner expressed gratitude to his leading ladies Marina De Tavira, Yalitza Aparicio and Nancy Garcia for the immense respect shown in portraying the women who raised him.
Their contribution to this project was crucial, since they were front and center in Cuarón’s most personal project to date. Roma is set in the ‘70s and is inspired by the filmmaker’s upbringing in the middle-class neighborhood of Mexico City the movie was named after.
Critics had nothing but words of praise for this film, and described it as “a richly textured masterpiece” and “cinema at its purest and most human.” We’ll have to wait a few more months to make our own judgment. Roma will be released by Netflix on December 14, with a limited theatrical rollout planned.
Here’s a look at the rest of the major winners at this year’s Venice Film Festival:
Golden Lion: Roma by Alfonso Cuarón
Grand Jury Prize: The Favourite by Yorgos Lanthimos
Silver Lion: The Sisters Brothers by Jacques Audiard
Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Olivia Colman for The Favourite
Volpi Cup for Best Actor: Willem Dafoe for At Eternity’s Gate
Best Screenplay Award: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs by Joel and Ethan Coen
Special Jury Prize: The Nightingale by Jennifer Kent
Marcello Mastroianni Award: Baykali Ganambarr for The Nightingale
