“I’m Still Here” star Fernanda Torres won her first Golden Globe, and cemented her place in the awards race, after scoring the statue for best actress in a motion picture, drama.
Torres, 59, appeared stunned to hear her named called and kept her speech short. In the political drama, she plays Eunice Paiva, a grieving mother who is coping with the forced disappearance of her husband, former leftist politician Rubens Paiva, during the military dictatorship in Brazil.
“My god, I didn’t prepare anything because I was late already,” Torres admitted from the stage at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. “And this is such an amazing year for female performances. There are so many actresses here who I admire so much.”
Torres was nominated against Pamela Anderson (“The Last Showgirl”), Angelina Jolie (“Maria”), Nicole Kidman (“Babygirl”), Tilda Swinton (“The Room Next Door”) and Kate Winslet (“Lee”). Torres is the first Brazilian actress to win the award for best actress in a motion picture, drama, and her victory appeared especially meaningful because her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, was previously nominated in the same category in 1999 for “Central Station,” which also earned her an Oscar nod. Montenegro, now 95, appears in “I’m Still Here” as the older version of Eunice.
“She was here 25 years ago, and this is proof that art can endure through life, even in difficult moments like this,” Torres said of her win, saying “I’m Still Here” is a film “that can helps us to think how to survive in tough times.”
“I’m Still Here” premiered at Venice Film Festival, where it won the best screenplay award. Since then, it’s been named as one of the top five international films by the National Board of Review and received another Globe nomination for best foreign language film. “I’m Still Here” was also selected as Brazil’s Oscar entry for best international feature film.
Though Torres, on stage, didn’t specify what she meant by “tough times,” though “I’m Still Here” has scenes that evoke the Jan. 6 riots as supporters of right-wing politician Jair Bolsonaro stormed Brazilian government buildings after his claims of election fraud.
“We started this project thinking that we were retelling a story from the past, but we came to realize that it was also a reflection on our present,” director Walter Salles told Variety before the film’s theatrical release. “We have to remind ourselves of what happened. Cinema can be a powerful instrument to push against those forces — to help us avoid oblivion. A country without memory is a country without a future.”