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The surprise Oscar contender you haven’t heard about

At the 82nd annual Golden Globe Awards honoring the “best” in film and television from 2024, a genuine surprise happened in a major award category. Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres won Best Actress in a Motion Picture–Drama for her performance in “I’m Still Here” (2024). She beat out Screen Actors Guild Awards nominee Pamela Anderson (“The Last Showgirl”) and Golden Globe-favorites Kate Winslet (“Lee”), Nicole Kidman (“Babygirl”) and the perceived frontrunner, Angelina Jolie (“Maria”). As of January 5th, the date of the ceremony, “I’m Still Here” was the only film nominated in the category without a domestic release and it’s arguable that Torres is the least well-known actress of the bunch, at least in America. It was shocking. Who is Fernanda Torres? How did she win this award? What is “I’m Still Here”? 

The Golden Globe Foundation, formerly known as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), is currently composed of sixty-five members: photographers, videographers, and journalists, most of whom live outside of the U.S. (specifically in South America and Europe). However, former members of the HFPA still participate in voting and additional members have been added in the last four years less selectively than in the past. This rebranding happened after the HFPA faced controversy back in 2021 for lacking diversity across its membership as well as getting into many scandals, several of which involved producers and studio executives bribing members to vote for their movies. Now, the Golden Globes website shows that there are 334 active voters. 80 to 90 of the voters are Latin or Latin American, and 26 of them are Brazilian. This is a significant percentage (nearly 8%) of the voting body. While it’s bold to claim that all of these Latin American voters, hell, all of these Brazilians, voted for Torres, it’s also true that Brazilians get specifically passionate about their actors and movies. On the Instagram page for the Golden Globes, the video of Torres’ win has nearly 3,000,000 likes. Meanwhile, the rest of the videos of the ceremony barely average 20,000 likes. Additionally, there are hundreds of videos with thousands of views on YouTube showing the telecast moment.  

Needless to say, the Brazilian fans are especially supportive of Torres. Her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, is arguably the most famous Brazilian actress of today, and was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award in 1999 for her performance in the acclaimed drama “Central Station” (1998). Ironically, “Central Station” is directed by Walter Salles, the same filmmaker who directed “I’m Still Here.” The similarities between the narratives and films of the mother-daughter Fernanda duo are hilariously numerous. 

In the film, Torres plays Eunice Palva, the wife of PTB deputy director Rubens Palva, who disappeared and was found killed by the Brazilian Military Dictatorship in 1970. Under President Emílio Médici’s rule, armed officers could abduct and arrest citizens at essentially their own free-will, with members of the Labour Party particularly targeted. It’s often a tough watch, yet finds beauty in slower, deliberately dramatic moments where we see a portrait of Eunice with her daughters and familial lifestyle. Personally, I found the film twenty or thirty minutes too long, but am overall positive about it due to the engaging storyline and Torres’ stellar lead performance.

As an actress, Torres is assured, confident and emotionally convincing. She makes unexpected decisions in her performance, never taking the obvious route. You can sense an anger and resistance in her at each moment, yet her resilience is expressed in a quiet and subdued manner. Specifically, she trembles physically in a way that feels specific, personal and believable. This isn’t a showy turn with focus crying or intense shouting, it’s a nuanced and subtle characterization of a woman whose entire career and domestic life centered around struggle, pain and fear. Eunice Palva was a survivor and a fighter who would eventually become an established activist and a successful lawyer who specialized in human rights, all while taking care of her five children. It’s a classically inspiring true-story drama, with some artful directorial choices and vibrantly-colored shot composition. 

Even if Torres ultimately misses the Oscar nomination for Best Actress (which will be announced just as this article will be read), it’s still notable that she was able to win the Golden Globe for her beautiful work. This win gave her a serious platform and likely opened the eyes of many Academy members who hopefully watched “I’m Still Here” (and voted for Torres). Foreign language films and performances are increasing their presence at the American awards ceremonies, which is a (rare) fantastic sign for the future.

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