Sandra Bullock may not have taken home the Best Actress award at the Oscars, but she did nab one of the top winner speech mentions courtesy of Alfonso Cuaron.

When Cuaron took the stage to accept the award for Best Director for "Gravity," he attributed much of the film's success to the actress.

"Sandra Bullock -- Sandy, you're 'Gravity,'" Cuaron said, after accepting the award from Angelina Jolie and Sidney Poitier. "You are the soul, heart of the film," he added, calling Bullock "one of the best people I ever met."

Although Cuaron has been nominated in the past for several Oscars -- for films like "Children Of Men" and "Y Tu Mamá También" -- this was the director's first win.

"Gravity" was an epic undertaking for Cuaron and Co. -- it took almost five years to bring the film to the screen, as the whole thing was carefully and precisely choreographed with director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki before the cameras even started rolling.

"Well, we had to pre-visualize the whole film before we started shooting -- in a very precise way," Cuaron told MTV News. "It was not only pre-visualization, but also pre-lighting it. We have to light it virtually because then everything on set was pre-programmed."

The director hinted at the grueling process in his acceptance speech, saying, "Making a film can be a transformative experience and I want to thank 'Gravity' because for many of us involved in this film it was definitely a transformative experience."

"What really sucks is that for a lot of these people that transformation was wisdom, for me it was just the color of my hair," he added, indicating his gray head. "I want to share this with all these wise people who made this movie happen."

Cuaron beat out the likes of "American Hustle"'s David O. Russell and "12 Years a Slave"'s Steve McQueen for the award, becoming the first Latin American to win an Oscar for filmmaking, according to the "Los Angeles Times." "Gravity" won a total of seven awards.

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