Fernanda Torres still remembers the day her mother, Brazil’s grande dame of film, came within reach of cinema’s most coveted prize: an Oscar.
“It had great symbolism for Brazil,” Ms. Torres, an acclaimed actress herself, said in an interview. “I mean, Brazil produced something like her, you know?” she added. “It was very beautiful.”
A quarter-century ago, Fernanda Montenegro, now 95, made history when she became the first Brazilian actress to be nominated for an Academy Award. She lost to Gwyneth Paltrow, and Brazil never got over what it considered a snub.
Now, Ms. Torres, 59, is attracting chatter in Hollywood that could put her in line to win the elusive golden statuette for a role that has ignited cinematic fever — and a national reckoning — in Latin America’s largest country.
Millions of viewers are packing theaters to watch “I’m Still Here,” a quiet drama starring Ms. Torres about a family torn apart by a military junta that ruled Brazil, by fear and force, for over two decades.
This past week, the movie was nominated for a Golden Globe for best foreign language film, and Ms. Torres was nominated in the lead actress category, bolstering Oscar hopes.
Though the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which oversees the Oscars, will not reveal its nominations until January, “I’m Still Here” is Brazil’s official entry in the international feature film category.
At home, the movie has struck a nerve in a nation that suffered through the brutal dictatorship from 1964 to 1985.
Set in Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, “I’m Still Here” tells the story of Eunice Paiva and her five children, whose lives are upended when the family patriarch, Rubens Paiva, a former congressman played by Selton Mello, disappears at the hands of the military government.
By telling this family’s story, the film tackles a “piece of Brazilian history” that is being forgotten, said Walter Salles, the movie’s director and one of the nation’s most prolific filmmakers. “The personal story of the Paiva family is the collective story of a country.”
The film has quickly become a national treasure, breaking box office records and eclipsing usual crowd-pleasers like “Wicked” and “Gladiator 2.”
Since the release of “I’m Still Here” in early November, more than 2.5 million Brazilians have seen it in theaters, and it has grossed more than six times the amount made by last year’s most-watched Brazilian film.
In a troubling twist, the movie was being widely shown in Brazil just as the police revealed new details about a plot to stage a coup and keep the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, a defender of the military dictatorship, in power after he lost the 2022 election.
Against this backdrop, the film’s themes have gained an urgent new meaning, said Marcelo Rubens Paiva, whose book about his family inspired the movie.
“The timing was, unfortunately, perfect,” he said, “because it showed this story isn’t just in our past.”
Human rights groups estimate that hundreds of people were disappeared and some 20,000 were tortured during the dictatorship. But, unlike Chile or Argentina, where many crimes committed there under military dictatorships have been tried and punished, Brazil has not pursued accountability for its military’s atrocities.
In recent years, what many had seen as the distant past began to creep into the present. Mr. Bolsonaro, a retired army captain, spoke frequently in nostalgic terms about the dictatorship, awarded thousands of government jobs to soldiers and dismantled a panel investigating crimes committed during the military’s rule.
Movies and other forms of cultural works were frequent targets of censorship during the dictatorship, which considered them political foes. Now, films like “I’m Still Here” can serve as “instruments against forgetting,” Mr. Salles said. “Cinema reconstructs memory.”
And the film has surely ignited Brazil’s collective memory. In classrooms and newspaper pages, heated debates are unfolding over the legacy of the dictatorship. On social media, stories of suffering at the hands of the military government have gone viral, drawing millions of views.
On a recent rainy weekday, as moviegoers packed a Rio de Janeiro theater, it was clear that “I’m Still Here” had cast a wide spell. Groups of teenagers, fathers and sons and older couples were all clutching tickets.
Some snapped selfies in front of the movie’s poster. Others took deep breaths before stepping into the theater’s darkness.
Inside, the crowd gasped at the sounds of the torture of political prisoners; teared up when Eunice, played by Ms. Torres, defiantly smiled for a newspaper photo, unwavering in the face of tragedy; and stifled sobs when Ms. Montenegro made a silent appearance in the closing scenes, as an older Eunice whose memories were fading.
The film echoed a familiar past for many. “It shows everything we lived through,” said Dr. Eneida Glória Mendes, 73, who grew up in a military family during the dictatorship.
Dr. Mendes, who has watched the film twice, remembers ripping up letters she received from friends who criticized the regime so that her father would not see them. Anyone sending or receiving such correspondence could have been detained.
“We were not free,” she said. “Even a silly criticism could lead to arrest.”
For younger Brazilians, the film offered a glimpse into a reality they had heard about only at school. “For my generation, there’s this thirst to know more,” said Sara Chaves, 25, an aspiring actress.
“I’m Still Here” has also captivated audiences and critics abroad. When it premiered in Venice this year, it won an award for best screenplay and drew a thundering applause that lasted 10 minutes.
So when the academy shared an image on social media of Ms. Torres at a Hollywood industry gala last month, Brazilians went wild. “Give her the award already!” said one of the more than 820,000 comments on Instagram.
If she is nominated in the best actress category, Ms. Torres would be following a remarkably similar path to her mother, who was nominated in 1999 for her role as a letter writer for illiterate people in “Central Station,” a Brazilian classic also directed by Mr. Salles.
“There was this feeling in the country that she was deeply wronged,” said Isabela Boscov, a Brazilian cinema critic who has been reviewing films for three decades.
“I’m Still Here” is widely expected to receive a nomination in the international film category, according to Hollywood insiders, but Ms. Torres’s chances are more uncertain.
Sony Pictures Classics, the studio distributing “I’m Still Here” globally, which launched the successful best actress nomination bid for Ms. Montenegro, is making a concerted push for Ms. Torres. Yet she may face tough odds this year in a crowded field that includes names like Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman.
To Ms. Torres, an Oscar nomination “would be a big victory” in itself, but she is not getting her hopes up. “It would be an incredible story if I got there, following my mother,” she said. “Now, winning — I consider it impossible.”
Since the first Oscars ceremony in 1929, only two actresses have won awards for leading roles in foreign-language films.
On a recent Sunday afternoon at Ms. Torres’s home, she sat across from her mother, reminiscing about art and family and other films the two have made together.
“This is also a legacy of life, of a profession,” Ms. Montenegro said, gesturing toward her daughter, then herself.
After a career spanning more than seven decades, Ms. Montenegro is still acting in films and onstage. But her movements are slower, her eyesight is weakening and she rests more.
Sharing a character with her daughter, in a film that has inspired awe and soul-searching across Brazil, has carried personal symbolism, too. “It’s a really special moment,” Ms. Montenegro said.
After a final lipstick check in the mirror, the two actresses faced a camera for a photograph for this article. They moved their faces close together, their cheeks nearly touching. Like Eunice Paiva, in the movie both are in, they prefer to smile.
“My mother is still alive; all is well with her,” Ms. Torres explained. “I’m happy.”
“By chance, I’m still here,” Ms. Montenegro replied. Ms. Torres chimed in: “We’re still here.”
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