The nominations for the 2019 Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday, Jan. 22, and Netflix is leading the pack with its film Roma, which scored the most nominations this year with nods in 10 categories.
Roma is nominated for Best Picture, Best Director for Alfonso Cuarón, Best Actress in a Leading Role for Yalitza Aparicio, Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Marina de Tavira, Best Original Screenplay, Best Foreign-Language Film, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.
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Roma is unusual in that it is the first Best Picture nominee without official box office grosses, as many theaters won’t play a Netflix film. In an awards season push, Netflix booked Roma in around 100 cinemas for multiple weeks.
The movie is also Netflix’s first Best Picture nomination, a major move for the streaming service, which has shifted its focus heavily to original content in recent years. Since 2014, Netflix had previously earned 15 Academy Award nominations and two wins. This year, the streaming service received a total of 15 nominations.
Other Best Picture nominees this year include Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite, Green Book, A Star Is Born and Vice. The Favorite tied Roma with 10 nominations, while A Star Is Born and Vice earned eight nods, Black Panther has seven, BlacKkKlansman has six and Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody have five.
Roma is a black-and-white autobiographical film recalling Cuarón’s life as a child in Mexico, and it was released on Netflix in December 2018. The movie previously picked up Golden Globes for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director this month.
Cuarón grew up in Mexico City in the 1970s, and recreated the scenes of his childhood for the film. Roma focuses on Cuarón’s mother and his family’s live-in nanny, who the director considers his second mother, as they navigate caring for their families.
With Roma, Cuarón is now the fifth person to receive four nominations in four different award categories for the same movie, and the film is now tied with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as the foreign-language film with the most nominations.
This year’s Academy Awards will take place on Feb. 24 and air on ABC.
Photo Credit: Netflix
