RIO DE JANEIRO – When Spanish actress Penélope Cruz announced “I’m Still Here” as the winner of the international feature at the Academy Awards, millions of Brazilians roared at home and on the streets, where Carnival festivities have been ongoing since Saturday.
On Monday, as parties continued nationwide, many revelers took time to take a quick look at newspapers, peek on their social media and watch TV to rejoice even more for the country’s first-ever Oscar victory. The film shows a family torn apart by the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil for more than two decades.
“I promised I would watch ‘ I’m Still Here ‘ again tonight if it won, right after I come back from a Carnival street party, wearing my Wonder Woman costume,” said Fernanda Rocha, 38, a pharmacist and tourist from Brasilia. “I live in a city where the military almost helped former President Jair Bolsonaro throw a coup just two years ago. This movie is a win against that too.”
Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes announced an expensive way to celebrate. His administration will buy the house where the film was shot in the upscale region of Urca, currently priced at 20 million Brazilian reais ($3.35 million) so it can be transformed into a cinema museum.
“We will make it public and open it for visitation, the place that brought Brazil’s first Oscar in almost 100 years of the awards,” Paes said in his social media channels.
Rio’s O Globo and O Estado de S. Paulo, two of Brazil’s most popular newspapers, had almost identical headlines: “At last, Brazil has an Oscar win.” The South American country has had four other films nominated for Academy Awards: “Keeper of Promises” (1963), “O Quatrilho” (1996), “Four Days in September” (1998) and “Central Station” (1999).
Brazilian TV and social media repeatedly showed footage from the early hours of Monday, local time, with outbursts of joy across the nation and beyond, including at Rio’s Sambadrome, a stadium where the glitzy Carnival parades take place every year, over the victory of the Walter Salles-directed film. And in Mexico, a TV broadcast team was seen dancing to celebrate the win.
The film’s star, Fernanda Torres, was nominated for best actress. Her defeat to Anora’s Mikey Madison disappointed many Brazilians. “I’m Still Here” was also a nominee for best picture, another first for a Brazilian film. Those losses did not dampen the celebration over the international film Academy Award.
“This was our first, we want to soon have two just like our friends and rivals from Argentina,” said Paulo Almeida, 30-year-old theater actor. “I am so very happy and hopeful that this will boost our movie industry for decades, just like it did for our neighbors.”
Argentina has won the international feature at the Oscars with “The Official Story” (1986) and “The Secret in Their Eyes” (2010).
Brazilian media reported that Torres was invited to the “Champions Parade” of Rio’s Carnival, which will take place Saturday with the top six performers at the samba school league. She has yet to confirm but hope among fans is high.
“She is the movie. We need to celebrate her as much as we can,” said Vania Martins, a retired teacher. “Brazilian cinema deserved this win long ago. There’s movies that were even better than ‘I’m Still Here’ and didn’t even get nominated. I hope that this win puts a spotlight on a country that does great, great things for art too.”
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