Fernanda Torres became this morning the second Brazilian performer to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Actress after her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, was nominated in 1999. Torres was nominated for her role as Eunice Paiva in Walter Salles’ period political family drama I’m Still Here / Ainda Estou Aqui, while Montenegro was nominated for her role as Isadora in Central Station / Central do Brasil, also directed by Salles.
Torres also became the sixth Latin American performer to be nominated for Best Actress, the list also includes Salma Hayek for Frida in 2003, Catalina Sandino Moreno for Maria Full of Grace in 2005, Yalitza Aparicio for Roma in 2019, and Ana de Armas for Blonde in 2022.
Torres was the recent winner of the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama, which was suprising and helped her ciment her Oscar nomination. She’ll be competing against Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez), Mikey Madison (Anora), and Demi Moore (The Substance).
Also starring Montenegro, Selton Mello, and Maeve Jinkings, I’m Still Here tells the poignant true story of the Paiva family and their five children. Set in 1970s Rio de Janeiro during the military dictatorship, the narrative centers on former deputy Rubens Paiva, who was forcibly taken from his home by soldiers for interrogation and never seen again. The family's decades-long search for truth was complicated by Eunice Paiva, his wife, beginning to show the first signs of Alzheimer's disease just as answers started to emerge.
