Roma - 10 nominations

Best Picture - Gabriela Rodríguez and Alfonso Cuarón

Actress in a Leading Role, Yalitza Aparicio

Actress in a Supporting Role, Marina de Tavira

Cinematography, Alfonso Cuarón

Directing, Alfonso Cuarón

Foreign Language Film, Mexico; Alfonso Cuarón

Production Design, Eugenio Caballero (Production Design); Bárbara Enríquez (Set Decoration)

Sound Editing, Sergio Díaz and Skip Lievsay

Sound Mixing, Skip Lievsay, Craig Henighan and José Antonio García

Writing (Original Screenplay), Written by Alfonso Cuarón

Roma follows the life of a domestic worker, Cleo, in the household of a middle class doctor in Mexico in the early 70's.  The family has four kids and a handful of staff working for them.  When the doctor leaves his wife, the family carries on with the occasional getaway, and they bring Cleo along.  It is clear that the family has great affection for her, and she loves them too as she cares for the children as her own.  When she becomes pregnant as a single person, they promise to keep her on, and they take care of her throughout.  There are moments of activity or outings, but the best description of this film is perhaps, "slice of life."  Almost everything that happens is really nothing happening, with the exception of some depictions of political upheaval at the time.

I felt a little bit insecure in my lack of appreciation of this film, so I started looking around not for reviews, but for synopses of the film.  Even The Academy couldn't squeak out more than two lines, and IMDB got as far as one.  That's it.  There's not much to describe.  So, you either love a movie where not much happens and there's a small window into one young woman's life, or you don't.  This film is a love letter to Alfonso Cuaron's childhood maid, the film is dedicated to her.  The movie ends (this is not a spoiler, I promise) with Cleo heading up the stairs to do laundry.  Just another day in her life, even following a difficult time for her personally.  There isn't a lot of emotion or gravitas to the film, so I can't quite figure out what all the hype is about.

I will give credit where it's due, the cinematography is absolutely beautiful, and it's worth noting that Cuaron has had other successes (see Gravity's cinematography win, and Children of Men's cinematography nomination - this guys knows how to shoot a film, and/or how to hire people who do.)  

I would so like to say that Roma was wonderful and worth all of these nominations, but even the acting categories - the Supporting Actress barely made my radar and the lead actress has such a flat affect for most of the film that it was hard to connect with her character.  I'm sorry Roma lovers.  It just wasn't for me.