Alfonso Cuaron, winner of the Best Director award for "Roma", poses for photos in the press room during the 91st Academy Awards ceremony, or the Oscars, held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, the United States, on Feb. 24, 2019. It's the third win for the film following its win in the categories of Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography. (Xinhua/Li Ying)

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron won the Best Director award for the monochromatic drama film "Roma" at the 91st Academy Awards ceremony, held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood in the western U.S. city of Los Angeles on Sunday night.

Cuaron beat out fierce rivals including Spike Lee for "BlacKkKlansman," Pawel Pawlikowski for "Cold War," Yorgos Lanthimos for "The Favorite" and Adam McKay for "Vice."

It's the third win for the film tonight following its win in the categories of Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography.

The award is also Cuaron's second Best Director Oscar and his fourth Oscar award overall. He had won the Best Director Oscar for the science fiction thriller film "Gravity" in 2013.

"I want to thank the Academy for recognizing a film centered around an indigenous woman, one of the 70 million domestic workers in the world without work rights," said Cuaron in his acceptance speech.

Written and directed by Cuaron, the critically acclaimed autobiographical drama "Roma" follows the life of a live-in housekeeper to a Mexican upper-middle-class family.

The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival last year and took home two wins last month at the 76th Golden Globe Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director. It also won four awards, including Best Director, at the 24th Critics' Choice Awards last month.

Cuaron also picked up the award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film at the 71st Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards earlier this month.