By Will Hammock for Infosurhoy.com
Alfonso Cuarón became the first Mexican to win the Academy Award for best director and added an Oscar for best film editing for ‘Gravity,’ which took home seven awards, the most by any film this year. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images/AFP)
The native of Mexico City became the first Mexican to win the Academy Award for best director and added an Oscar for best film editing for Gravity, which took home seven awards, the most by any film this year.
Gravity is a 3D thriller starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as two astronauts who are in the middle of a spacewalk when their space shuttle blows up. The film also won Academy Awards for best original score, cinematography, sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects.
Cuarón, who grew up wanting to be an astronaut, thanked Bullock, whose terrific performance of an astronaut desperately trying to come back to earth captivated audiences from throughout the world.
“Sandy, you are Gravity, you are the soul and heart of the film. You are an amazing collaborator and one of the best people I have ever met,” he said during his acceptance speech at the Dolby Theatre.
Gravity, which has grossed more than US$270 million at the box office in the U.S. and another US$434 million overseas, failed to win best picture, which went to 12 Years a Slave, about the memoir of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., and sold into slavery.
Cuarón, who shared the film editing award with co-editor Mark Sanger, had won Golden Globe for best director earlier this year. Cuarón also produced and wrote the film, which he spent nearly five years making.
“For many of us involved in this film, it was definitely a transformative experience. For a lot of these people, that transformation was wisdom,” he said on stage. “For me, it was just the color of my hair,” he added jokingly, indicating his gray head.
Cuarón’s victories were sweet after he failed to win any of his three previous Oscar nominations. In 2001, he was nominated for best screenplay – original for Y Tu Mamá También – and five years later for best screenplay – adapted and best editing for Children of Men.
Cuarón was the fourth Latin American ever to be nominated for best director, following Héctor Babenco (Kiss of the Spider Woman, 1985), Fernando Meirelles (City of God, 2003) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel, 2006).
12 Years a Slave also won Academy Awards for best supporting actress for Lupita Nyong’o and for best adapted screenplay.
Dallas Buyers Club, a story about a man living with AIDS in 1985, scored three Oscars. Matthew McConaughey won for best actor, Jared Leto for best supporting actor and Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews for achievement in makeup and hairstyle.
Cate Blanchett won for best actress for her work in Blue Jasmine, while Frozen won for best animated film.
Director Spike Jonze’s Her won the Oscar for original screenplay.
The Great Beauty, an Italian movie, won best foreign language film, besting The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium), The Hunt (Denmark), The Missing Picture (Cambodia) and Omar (Palestine).
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