First Trailer For Netflix Oscar Contender ROMA Debuts

The first look at Netflix's major Oscar play is here.

Roma Alfonso Cuaron
Netflix

The preparation for awards season is in full swing. Film festivals are announcing their lineups as pundits speculate which films will emerge as the major contenders. Almost certain to be a major player in the Oscar race this year is Alfonso Cuarón's (Gravity, Children of Men) newest film ROMA. Debuting at all four major film festivals this fall, Cuarón's Spanish-language drama follows a young domestic worker for a middle-class family over the course of one year in early 1970s Mexico City.

The director has described ROMA as the most "essential" film he's ever made, impressing how personal its story is as "Ninety percent of the scenes represented in the film are scenes taken out of my memory".

This first teaser promises a sweeping yet intimate drama. ROMA looks as epic as any of Cuarón's previous filmography, what with the political conflict leading to the Corpus Christi massacre serving as a backdrop for the family drama, the teaser also provides a glimpse at the familial love at the center of the film.

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Shot with Alexa 65mm and in gorgeous black and white, ROMA looks to be one of the most visually stunning releases of the year. Cuarón's frequent collaborator, three-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, could not return to lens ROMA due to scheduling conflicts.

However, Cuarón is taking cinematography duties on himself, a first for the filmmaker on one of his features. Based on this trailer alone, it looks as though ROMA could be the best looking film of Cuarón's oeuvre thus far. Early buzz also suggests that sound design plays an integral role in the film. To what effect remains to be seen, but this suggests ROMA will be wholly immersive experience on an emotional, visual, and audial level.

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Netflix will release ROMA in select theaters and globally on the streaming service on December 14th

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A man of many facets, Ted Silva is a writer for WhatCulture, a student studying Theatre Arts and English, and has been on a seafood kick lately. Ted will lose 9/10 games of Rock, Paper, Scissors but will keep trying anyway. Follow him @tedwerrrrd for some tweets that he thinks are really funny. Give them a like; it'll make him happy for no cost.