Brazil's Oscar Win for ‘I'm Still Here' Just Made for the Craziest Carnival Ever

Yahoo

04-03-2025

Carnival celebrations were raging across Rio on Sunday night when everyone stopped to pay attention.
The Oscar for best international feature was about to be announced from Hollywood, and all eyes were fixed on whether the country or anyone associated with it would win its first Oscar. I'm Still Here, Walter Salles' drama set during the country's two-decade military dictatorship that ended in 1985, was nominated for the international prize as well as two others.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
Oscar Night's Naked Dresses and History of the Sheer Look
Oscars 2025: Where to Stream the Award-Winning Films Online
Oscars Studio Scorecard: Neon Reigns Supreme With Five Wins
The festivities had already been shot through with Academy Awards. People danced around elétricos, the music-blaring floats, joyous over the movie's attention some 6,000 miles north. Some creative types had even taken the Boneco de Olinda, a giant traditional puppet often seen during Carnival, and tricked it out to depict star Fernanda Torres holding an awards statue. This was the biggest, and certainly coolest, Oscar watch party ever convened.
And so when Penélope Cruz read the name I'm Still Here from the stage of the Dolby just after midnight, the Carnival crowds erupted. Some watched on giant televisions as Salles hugged Torres and James Mangold and then took the stage. Others caught the news online. And in one eye-opening scene, Daniela Mercury, the Brazilian music icon and Latin Grammy winner, stood atop her elétrico and broke the news to the crowd, which went wild.
Ainda Estou Aqui had already been a sensation in Brazil long before the Oscar attention, selling more than 5 million tickets and sparking conversation and catharsis across the nation of 210 million. Supreme Court justices in cases seeking to hold far-right elements to account have cited it, and government agencies have changes rules around death certificates because of it.
But the attention from the Academy was another matter. A trauma too long swept under the rug was being feted by one from the most prominent entertainment bodies in the world — a beautifully ironic reversal of fortune.
And it was all coming via Salles, a native son and Latin America's go-to cinematic chronicler, as well as Torres, as the daughter of Fernanda Montenegro acting royalty and a performing legend in her own right. There was even hope Torres, who had staged an upset at the Golden Globes, could win the Oscar over Demi Moore and Mikey Madison.
That award was still an hour away. No matter.
'It's hard to put into words just how big of a moment this is,' emailed Bruna Santos, director of the Brazil institute at the independent Washington, D.C., think thank The Wilson Center and former vice president of the National School of Public Administration in Brazil. 'It's a defining moment, not just for Brazilian film, but for the country's ongoing reckoning with its past.'
Rafael Ioris, a Latin American expert at the University of Denver and author of the influential political history Transforming Brazil, put it even more pithily in a message to THR.
'A historic night,' he wrote.
The movie centers on a tragedy that befalls real-life congressman's wife Eunice Paiva when her husband is abducted by the military authorities, and her attempt to seek justice in its aftermath. The depiction of her years-long crusade has given hope to people in Brazil (and beyond) as they deal with a surge in far-right politics; Brazil itself saw an attempted coup by former far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro in 2023.
The chance for the movie to be on the Oscars' world stage only turbocharged their efforts.
'This goes to a woman who, after a loss suffered during an authoritarian regime, decided not to bend, and to resist,' Salles said from the Dolby, implicitly making the case for people to follow her lead anywhere authoritarianism reared its head.
The I'm Still Here developments underscore the global power of the new and more internationally minded Academy. By choosing films far from Hollywood, some fear the organization can overlook the dominant U.S. industry. But it also does something else: anoint countries removed from its home base and give life to their industries. Such is the hope in Brazil, where experts say the country needs stronger policies and government funding if it hopes for a rich film culture.
The Brazil reactions follow similar joy in Riga after the animation win for its indie environmental parable Flow. The Latvian capital has been in a state of euphoria since Flow started getting Oscar attention, with city signs even modified to pay homage to the film. The country's president, Edgars Rinkēvičs, posted on X on Monday that 'This is a great and historic day for Latvia! And we will all need time to understand what happened, because something big and beautiful occurred!'
In Brazil, the night took on a little bittersweetness when Torres went on to lose to Anora star Madison, a Los Angeles actor whose movie is far from the consciousness of Brazilians.
While some residents were upset, experts didn't seem to feel it would affect their mood long-term. There's just one star who might not want to count on Rio box office receipts anytime soon. 'Winning over Brazilian hearts will [now] be a hard battle for Mikey Madison,' joked Santos.
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
20 Times the Oscars Got It Wrong
The Best Anti-Fascist Films of All Time
Dinosaurs, Zombies and More 'Wicked': The Most Anticipated Movies of 2025