Mexico City filming locations for Roma

Alfonso Cuarón’s acclaimed drama feature Roma filmed on location in Mexico City. The movie was nominated for Best Picture by the Academy Awards and won Best Film at the BAFTAs.

By Nick Goundry 5 Feb 2019

Mexico City filming locations for Roma
Roma

Alfonso Cuarón’s drama feature Roma filmed on location in Mexico City. The movie was nominated for Best Picture by the Academy Awards and won Best Film at the BAFTAs.

Cuarón’s film is a semi-autobiographical story following a domestic servant in a Mexico City suburb in the early 1970s and her relationship with the children she looks after for the family’s matriarch Sofia.

The movie’s production schedule stretched to 108 days in total and scenes were shot in narrative order to give the actors a more organic grasp of the drama, according to a Screen report.

“We shot the film in order – [Cuarón] gave us that gift as actors,” said Marina de Tavira, who plays Sofia, in comments to Screen.

“We were facing what the characters were going through day-by-day. I was told at acting school that acting is being in the present tense all the time. That has never been so true for me as it was on this.”

Cuarón had a set made of his childhood home in a disused apartment block.

Mexico still has limited appeal as an international filming location, but does sometimes host high-profile features, while Netflix has backed several TV series in the country.

James Bond movie Spectre shot its pre-credits sequence in the centre of Mexico City, recreating the Day of the Dead celebrations for the shoot. More recently, action sequel Sicario 2: Soldado filmed action sequences in the city for a few weeks.

Baja Film Studios in the north-west of the country is best known for its water tank facilities and has hosted horror TV drama Fear the Walking Dead and survival feature All is Lost.

The BAFTAs will be held in London on 10 February and the Academy Awards will be in Los Angeles two weeks later.

See KFTV's production guide for more on filming in Mexico.

Images: Carlos Somonte/Netflix

The movie’s production schedule stretched to 108 days in total and scenes were shot in narrative order to give the actors a more organic grasp of the drama, according to a Screen report.

“We shot the film in order – [Cuarón] gave us that gift as actors,” said Marina de Tavira, who plays Sofia, in comments to Screen.

“We were facing what the characters were going through day-by-day. I was told at acting school that acting is being in the present tense all the time. That has never been so true for me as it was on this.”

Cuarón had a set made of his childhood home in a disused apartment block.

Mexico still has limited appeal as an international filming location, but does sometimes host high-profile features, while Netflix has backed several TV series in the country.

James Bond movie Spectre shot its pre-credits sequence in the centre of Mexico City, recreating the Day of the Dead celebrations for the shoot. More recently, action sequel Sicario 2: Soldado filmed action sequences in the city for a few weeks.

Baja Film Studios in the north-west of the country is best known for its water tank facilities and has hosted horror TV drama Fear the Walking Dead and survival feature All is Lost.

The BAFTAs will be held in London on 10 February and the Academy Awards will be in Los Angeles two weeks later.

See KFTV's production guide for more on filming in Mexico.

Images: Carlos Somonte/Netflix

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