> The director of the film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban also directedwhich of the following movies?Considering The Lord of the Rings, The Dark Knight, Roma, and A Beautiful Mind,the answer is: Roma. Photo credit: Carlos Somonte.The 2018 Mexican semi-autobiographical moviewritten, directed, and produced by Alfonso Cuarón is set in the 1970s in MexicoCity. It follows the life of Cleo, a live-in housekeeper for a middle-classfamily, played by Yalitza Aparicio. A school teacher with no prior formal actingexperience, Aparicio became the first indigenous woman to be nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Actress.Seeking to honor the housekeeper from his childhood in Roma, Mexico, Cuarónfocused his film around the experience of live-in maid, Cleo. Yet, Cuarón drewfrom many other experiences in his life to create the Oscar nominated film. Infact, he reports:> "Ninety percent of the scenes represented in the film are scenes taken out of mymemory. Sometimes directly, sometimes a bit more obliquely. It’s about a momentof time that shaped me, but also a moment of time that shaped a country. It wasthe beginning of a long transition in Mexico."Cuarón is a creator whose life experiences deeply inform his work. As such, Roma isn't his first semi-autobiographical film— the director's 2001 film Y Tu MamáTambién grows out of his life as a teenager in Mexico. What's more: Cuarón usesthese experiences to dictate how the movie is ultimately created, and with whom.The search for the leads in Roma took months, as Cuarón sought to find actorswho embodied the characteristics of the individuals he wanted to portray. Cuarónclaims:> "The thing with every single character was that they are people I know verywell. I wanted the actors to physically look as much like the real people aspossible. But not only look like them, I wanted them to have the samequalities."Finally, the right actors were found... in the most unsuspecting places. YalitzaAparicio was training to be a teacher when her sister convinced her to go to theopen audition for Roma. She had never acted before, but Cuarón was struck by hernatural stage presence and chemistry with her best friend. Cuarón even cast herbest friend to play Cleo's best friend in Roma, so that Aparicio would feel morecomfortable. Ultimately, Roma reeled in 10 Oscar nominations, and two wins in2018.