The Brazilian film “I’m Still Here,” based on the true story of an activist whose dissident politician husband disappeared at the hands of a military government, won the Academy Award for best international feature.
Directed by Walter Salles, the movie was a blockbuster in Brazil, where many remember the legacy of the military dictatorship, which lasted from 1964 to 1985. The film is based on a memoir of the same name by Marcelo Rubens Paiva: the son of Eunice Paiva, the film’s main character, and Rubens Paiva, her politician husband who disappeared after being arrested in a 1971 military raid of the Paiva house.
“This goes to a woman who, after a loss suffered during an authoritarian regime, decided not to bend and to resist,” Salles said while accepting the award. “This prize goes to her. Her name is Eunice Paiva. And it goes to the two extraordinary women who gave life to her: Fernanda Torres, and Fernanda Montenegro.”
The film’s lead actress, Torres, won the Golden Globe for best actress in a drama in a surprise victory in January and is also nominated for the best actress Oscar, making her the second Brazilian actress to receive a nod for that prize. The first was her mother, Montenegro, a grande dame of Brazilian film who plays an older version of her daughter’s character in “I’m Still Here.” She was nominated in 1999 for “Central Station,” also directed by Salles.
“I’m Still Here” won in a category that included France’s entry, the Spanish-language musical “Emilia Pérez,” which was once an Oscars front-runner; the Danish social drama “The Girl With the Needle”; the wordless Latvian animated film “Flow”; and “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” a film shot in secret in Iran and submitted by Germany.
“I’m Still Here” is also nominated for best picture, making it the first Brazilian-produced film to compete for the top prize at the Oscars.
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