No one had a better time at the 90th Academy Awards than Guillermo del Toro, who finally took home the gold for Best Director and Best Picture. His close friend and fellow Oscar winner, Alejandro González Iñárritu, was in attendance to congratulate him, while Alfonso Cuarón, the other musketeer, took to Twitter to express his joy.
At the Governors Ball following the ceremony, Iñárritu talked to El País about the prominence of Mexican-born artists at the coveted awards show. When the reporter mentioned that in the last five years four of the Best Director statuettes had gone to Mexican filmmakers, he enthusiastically responded: “!Vamos a hacer un muro de puros Oscars!” (“We’ll build a wall made entirely out of Oscars!”)
His comment was in response to Trump’s absurd campaign promise of erecting a massive structure along the United States’ border with Mexico. Iñárritu also praised “El Gordo,” as he affectionately refers to Del Toro, for his ability to move people. “’El Gordo’ eats culture. He has so much sensibility and generosity that his heart is going to burst out,” added the visionary behind the VR experience Carne y Arena, for which he received his most recent Oscar.
Collectively, the three directors have won eight competitive Academy Awards and one for a Special Achievement, and have scored 17 individual nominations, plus three nominations for Mexico in the Best Foreign Language Film category. They have been earning Oscars faster than Trump can get anything done, at this pace that border wall is going to be looking rather shiny really soon.
The list could keep growing next year if Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma is received with similar acclaim. Cuarón’s first Spanish-language project since Y Tu Mamá También is expected to hit the festival circuit later this year and to tentatively open in in theaters this fall, just in time to make a splash during the next awards season.
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s comments were translated from Spanish by the author for Remezcla.