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Roma - Winners' Acceptance Speech, Best Film, EE British Academy Film Awards in 2019

10 February 2019

Winner's acceptance speech by Alfonso Cuaron for Roma in the Best Film category 

ALFONSO CUARON:  Thank you very much.  Well, this is part of the people who made Roma.

This time I am going to read because, as you can tell, I completely blanked and I don't know what to say.

So I want to thank, of course, BAFTA for this incredible honour.  Participant Media and Netflix for having the faith and courage to get behind a black and white film about a domestic worker, subtitled from Spanish and Mixtec, and bring it to audiences all around the world.  

I share this award with my amazing cast and crew.  This film would definitely not exist without them.

To see a film about an indigenous domestic worker embraced this way in an age when fear and anger propose to divide us means the world to me.  Retreating back to a world of separation and isolation is not a solution to anything.  It's simply an excuse to hide our fear within our basic instincts.  

Whether we like it or not, we are all connected, sharing space and time.  When we finally choose to embrace that connection, to show compassion towards one another, we will rise together.  I truly believe that cinema has the power to help us achieve that.  

Thank you very much.  Thank you, guys.

Thank you.  Muchas gracias, muchas gracias.