Should Alfonso Cuarón Have Shared The Best Cinematography Oscar For 'Roma?'

When "Roma" became the first Mexican film to win an Oscar for best foreign film at this year's Academy Awards, it made history. It was also the center of a great deal of criticism over the fact it was a film that will primarily be distributed on the streaming service Netflix. That fact continues to rile up some of the Hollywood film establishment to the point where filmmakers like Steven Spielberg are suggesting that Academy guidelines should be changed in the future to guarantee an exclusive four-week theatrical window.

But a lesser-covered controversy has been the center of a lot of discussion in Mexico's film community for months, where a number of people are arguing "Roma" director and writer Alfonso Cuarón should have shared his Oscar for Best Cinematographer with relative newcomer Galo Olivares.

Here's a bit of background. 

Cuarón has stated in a number of interviews that when he wrote "Roma," he was planning on working with cinematographer Chivo Lubezki, a friend and someone with whom he has worked on nearly all of his films. But due to the timing of the film's production and complications with Lubezki's schedule, they were only able to work together in preproduction. So Cuarón hired Galo Olivares as a replacement and that is where the controversy begins. 

"Roma" was the second feature film Olivares has worked on, although he had done a number of short films. Some early reporting suggested Olivares was the official cinematographer on the film and the web site ZoomF7 posted some call sheets it claims show Olivares was listed as Director of Photography. 



But when "Roma" was completed, Olivares was listed as "camera operator/cinematography collaborator," a term which doesn't appear to be commonly used in the film industry. In the months since Olivares has been notably absent from any of the discussions about the film. Cuarón was listed as cinematographer and he won an Academy Award for his work. And when the director gave his speech after winning the Oscar, he thanked a number of people, including Chivo Lubeski. But no mention of Galo Olivares.

It's difficult to know precisely what happened. Film is a collaborative medium and generally speaking it's the job of the cinematographer to execute the vision of the film's director while also bringing their own talent and vision to their work. Several members of the crew have told AllYourScreens that Olivares filled the role that would normally lead to be described as the Director of Photography of "Roma." He not only served as the A camera operator, he made lighting and exposure decisions, served as the department head and executed decisions that would normally be made by the cinematographer/director of photography. So why was Olivares simply described as a cinematography collaborator?

All of this is complicated by the fact that Cuarón served as the DP for the reshoots of the film without Olivares. But even if that is the case, the industry standard would be for both men to be listed on the award for cinematographer. Every film director has a different approach to how much leeway their cinematographer has creatively, but generally speaking, the award typically goes to the department head. So at the very least, the award should have gone to both men.

While this issue hasn't been well covered in the English-language Hollywood trade press, it has been the topic of complaints in the Mexican film industry for months. And it's instructive to see how Cuarón's description of Olivares's role has evolved over the production and promotion of "Roma."

In a March 2017 press conference in Mexico City, Alfonso Cuarón announced the end of filming and spoke about the photography of the film: "This film was going to be photographed by Emmanuel Lubezki, but he could not travel at the end. I ended up photographing it myself in collaboration with Galo Olivares who is a new young photographer, with an exceptional eye and that exceptional eye after that process, one in which resources were used that are not frequent in the national cinema, I think that goes with that to leave with a wonderful technical knowledge. I really want to continue and see what else is going to happen with Galo." Other press coverage from 2017 generally described Olivares as the film's cinematographer.

But by the time the film began making the film circuit rounds in 2018, Cuarón was listed as the cinematographer in marketing materials and during a 2019 podcast with The Hollywood Reporter, he described the role Olivares played as essentially integral, but secondary. He described the role of cinematography collaborator this way:

"What it means is that [Galo] is a great operator, he is a DoP [director of photography] on his own merit, young, but he has a beautiful eye. I felt very comfortable having someone who was operating but could turn to see and...see his face if he liked what we were doing. The communication with the gaffer was mainly mine. Sometimes he came and said we can have a black fill and I said, you know what? Great idea. He had never made a movie like this."

It's also notable that so far, Galo Olivares has been silent about his work on "Roma." He has reportedly told friends he has signed an NDA that covers his work on the movie, although AllYourScreens has not been able to confirm that allegation. In a brief statement to the publication Quien, Olivares explained his decision this way:

"For personal and professional reasons I am not giving interviews regarding my participation in the film 'Roma' by Alfonso Cuarón."

One last interesting point.

This is not the first time Alfonso Cuarón has been the subject of controversy over proper crediting. Author Tess Gerritsen sued Cuarón and Warner Brothers over his screenplay for "Gravity," which she claimed was remarkably similar to her book of the same name. That book was originally optioned by New Lines Pictures in 1999. Gerritsen claims her literary agent was told Cuarón was interested in the project in 2000. So she suspected he had specific knowledge of her book and project when he claims to have written his screenplay.

The case was ultimately dismissed, not on merit but because Warner Brothers was able to successfully argue they were not legally responsible for any infringements caused by New Line Cinema. Warner Brothers had acquired New Line in 2008 but successfully claimed that any infringement claims would have be taken up with New Line, which no longer existed. 

As Gerritsen described the problem in 2015: "We were not given the opportunity to present our arguments in person. We were not allowed to go to discovery, so we have no access to corporate documents which might shed light on the relationship between Warner Bros. and New Line. The judge’s decision states: “Most fundamentally, the court cannot agree that WB’s exercise of control over Katja and New Line plausibly suggests that it intended to assume all of Katja’s and New Line’s liabilities and obligations following the purported consolidation.” That we are required to prove that a corporation intends to assume unwanted liabilities is just one example of the hurdles we face in this court. I am also unable to sue for copyright infringement, as my Gravity film rights are still held by New Line — which is under the control of Warner Bros.

But whatever problems occurred on  "Gravity" don't directly impact the question of who should have been credited as cinematographer for "Roma." And for all of the weird and unsettling twists in this story, it could be nothing but an innocent confusion over the facts. Call sheets can easily be faked or misstated and perhaps the reason why Galo Olivares has remained silent is that he is happy with the way his work on the film has been categorized by Alfonso Cuarón.

And while I'm loathe to report on something based primarily on rumors, this controversy has been percolating under the surface in Hollywood for months. In fact, the open question in the industry about who actually performed primary DP work on the film is rumored to be one reason the American Society of Cinematographers recently awarded their top film cinematography prize to Łukasz Żal for "Cold War." 

All of these rumors would be less of a problem if "Roma" had been a union film. The guidelines for cinematographer credits on a union film are laid out in great detail and this would likely have been worked out well before the film premiered. As things stand now, rumors over the DP credits for "Roma" continue to circulate in the industry, a situation which isn't fair to anyone involved with the film.

To make things even more confusing, one person I spoke with had heard the real story is that Alfonso Cuarón had convinced producers to pay Galo Olivares as a Director of Photography even though for all artistic purposes Cuarón took notes from Chivo and did it himself. So rather than Cuarón taking credit for some of the work done by Olivares, he was essentially "training up" someone who is talented enough to be a feature film DP, but didn't have the experience yet to fully do the job.

As things stand now, all of the principal parties for this story have either declined comment or have failed to respond to questions related to the story.

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