Fernanda Torres has won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for her role in Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here, per deadline.com. The win comes 25 years after her mother, legendary actress Fernanda Montenegro, received a nomination for another Salles film, Central Station.
Torres delivers a masterful performance as Eunice Paiva, a mother of five whose husband was disappeared by Brazil’s military dictatorship in 1970. The film, based on a memoir by Paiva’s son Marcelo, chronicles her 25-year battle for justice while raising her children in the shadow of authoritarian repression.
“Of course I want to dedicate this to my mother,” Torres declared in her acceptance speech. “She was here 25 years ago, and this is proof that art can endure through life.”
The tribute carries special weight given Montenegro’s recent achievement of drawing 15,000 people to a public reading, earning her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The role presented unique challenges for Torres, who at 57 had to portray a woman 16 years her junior.
“I thought I was too old to play Eunice,” Torres revealed in a recent interview. “When Walter first gave me the script to read, I cried, but I never imagined he would cast me.”
Salles’ direction brought authenticity to the production by shooting chronologically and transforming the film’s house into a living set.
“The house is a character in the movie,” Torres explained. “Everything that happens to Eunice was happening to us too.”
For Torres, the project resonated deeply with her own childhood memories of Brazil’s dictatorship era.
“I remember the fear my parents had,” she shared. “Plays could be censored. My father almost went bankrupt when they censored a play he produced.”
“I’m Still Here” has garnered international acclaim while fostering cultural pride at home in Brazil. The film, shortlisted for the Academy Awards, has been praised for its sensitive handling of historical trauma while celebrating the resilience of the human spirit. As awards season progresses, Torres’ powerful performance continues to shine a light on a dark chapter of Brazilian history through the lens of one family’s extraordinary story of survival and defiance.
