Alfonso Cuarón wins Best Director at Golden Globes for Roma

Alfonso Cuarón won Best Director at Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony for Roma, helping to cement his black-and-white family drama as the film to beat going into the Oscars.

Based on Cuarón’s own upbringing in 1970s Mexico City, Roma stars Yalitza Aparicio as a domestic worker named Cleo who lives with her employer’s family. The film has earned near-universal praise since it debuted at the Venice International Film Festival, and in all, Roma was nominated for three Golden Globes, including Best Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film. (Because of its foreign-language nomination, it was ineligible in the Globes’ Best Picture categories.)

In his acceptance speech, Cuarón thanked the real-life people who inspired Roma, including his childhood nanny Libo Rodriguez.

“In reality, this film was directed Libo, by my mother, and my family and maybe even more importantly by this place, this very complex lab that shaped and created me,” Cuarón told the audience. “So muchas gracias, Mexico.”

Cuarón previously took home the Globe director’s trophy in 2014, when he won for Gravity.

This year Cuarón beat out fellow nominees Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman), Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born), Peter Farrelly (Green Book), and Adam McKay (Vice).

Related content:

• Golden Globes 2019 red carpet arrivals: See what the stars wore
• Golden Globes 2019: See the full winners list
• Roma wasn’t snubbed for Best Drama at Golden Globes: Here’s why it wasn’t eligible