Oscars 2019: How nominees reacted

“As a daughter of a domestic worker and an indigenous woman myself, I am proud this movie will help those of us who feel invisible be seen”

— Yalitza Aparicio, nominated for ‘Roma’.

“Cinema needs the opportunity to be diverse. What mainstream cinema and the theatrical experience has lacked in general is diversity. And I’m talking about diversity in terms of stories and characters and ways of doing films.”

— Alfonso Cuaron, nominated for best director for ‘Roma’, one of ten nominations for the film.

“Thirty years is a long time, ain’t it?”

— Spike Lee, on his first Oscar nomination as director in a three-decade career, for ‘BlacKkKlansman’.

“It feels great. I’m still freezing my butt off.”

— Willem Dafoe, who for months has been in Canada filming the Disney sled-dog movie ‘Togo’.

“The subject matter we’re talking about is a very unpleasant time in history, and we did it with an unusual style in storytelling. We knew it was going to be polarising, but we felt like it was in a good way.”

— Adam McKay, director of ‘Vice’, nominated for best picture and several other Oscars.

“To break down a wall like that, to be your ancestors’ wildest dreams, to show other young women of colour and boys and girls that you can do whatever you want no matter what struggles you have in your life — all of that. That’s what it means to me.”

— Hannah Beachler of ‘Black Panther’, the first African-American to be nominated for production design.

“We always felt that if Alex was able to climb up El Capitan without a rope and succeed — that for us is always going to be the win already.”

— Jimmy Chin, co-director with of ‘Free Solo’, the nominated documentary about Alex Honnold becoming the first to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan without ropes.

“No one is saying I don’t have a chance. They’re saying you have a chance. The women who I’m going against are top level. The top of the heap. To be there and give them a run for their money, I’m totally stoked.”

— Ruth E Carter, nominated costume designer for ‘Black Panther’.

“I was flying into Warsaw when they were announcing the nominees. When I landed, I got bombarded by messages, a nice way to arrive.”

— Pawel Pawlikoski of Poland, whose film ‘Cold War’ was nominated for three Oscars including best director.

“Hot damn!”

— Sam Rockwell, best supporting actor nominee for ‘Vice’.