Oscars 2019: 9 Ups & 8 Downs

1. Alfonso Cuarón Keeps The Mexican Best Director Streak Alive

As has been extremely common in recent years, there was yet another split between Best Picture and Best Director awards, with Best Picture of course going to Green Book while Best Director mercifully went to Alfonso Cuarón for Roma.

This marked Cuarón's fourth overall Oscar win and second Best Director victory, in what was one of the few truly, indisputably deserved wins of the night. Roma is an uncompromising film composed of a filmmaker's singular, unimpeded vision, and expertly executed to boot.

It also kept the recent winning streak alive for Mexican directors in the category. Of the last six winners, five of them have been Mexican: Cuarón for Gravity, Alejandro G. Iñárritu's back-to-back wins for Birdman and The Revenant, Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water, and now Cuarón again for Roma. Damien Chazelle was the streak-breaker for La La Land back in 2017.

Clearly there's something in the water over there, and given the mind-boggling talent between these three Mexican directors alone, it's a streak that can happily endure.

What did you think of this year's Oscars? Shout it out in the comments!