Report: Alfonso Cuaron's Oscar-Winning Cinematography on 'Roma' In Dispute
Alfonso Cuarón collected three Oscars at Sunday's Academy Awards, including Best Cinematography for his period film "Roma."
Now there are rumors that someone else is responsible for the film's stunning black-and-white cinematography.
In a thread on Resetera, someone who "works in the industry" claims that it's well known, at least in the Mexican media, that Galo Olivares was the real DP (director of photography/cinematographer). In dispute, according to this thread, is whether Olivares was simply a camera operator (as he's credited on IMDb) or the film's real DP.
Some "Roma" call sheets shared on the Spanish-language site ZoomF7 official list Olivares as "Director de fotografia."
Either way, Cuarón neglected to mention him in his acceptance speech. (The director did mention his regular DP, Emmanuel Lubezki, who was unavailable for the film.)
A 2017 Filmstage article credits Olivares as Cuarón's "new DP." The article said, "As for the cinematographer, Cuarón handled director of photography duties with Galo Olivares, who has been working on Mexican productions since the start of this decade."
According to IMDb, Olivares is currently shooting "Gretel and Hansel" with director Oz Perkins.
In a pre-Oscars "anonymous Academy voter" article on IndieWire, Cuarón was also called out for taking an editing credit on the film. Said the unnamed editor:
"I haven’t seen 'Roma,' because Alfonso Cuarón took an editing credit without ever having touched the Avid and that offended me so deeply that I won’t go near the film. It was non-union so he, not being a member of MPEG, was able to get away with it."
Best editing went to "Bohemian Rhapsody," which is also not without controversy if you've been on Twitter since Sunday.
No comment yet from the filmmakers or the Academy.
[Via Resetera, IndieWire, Filmstage]