Long live Fernanda Torres and Brazilian cinema 🏆
The campaign for Fernanda Torres' nomination for the 2025 Oscar for her role in "I'm Still Here" continues to stir up the world of cinema. But 25 years ago, it was her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, who experienced all the excitement of the award season, in an episode remembered by many Brazilians - and even foreigners - as one of the greatest injustices of the awards.
Fernanda Montenegro was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in 1999 for her role as Dora in "Central Station", directed by Walter Salles. The Brazilian was competing against four Hollywood giants: Cate Blanchett for "Elizabeth", Meryl Streep for "True Love", Emily Watson for "Hilary and Jackie", and the winner Gwyneth Paltrow for "Shakespeare in Love".
"Central do Brasil" was also nominated in the category of Best Foreign Language Film, but ended up losing to the Italian "Life Is Beautiful", by Roberto Benigni.
The feeling of injustice is not only felt by Brazilians. In 2020, American Glenn Close, nominated for an eight-time Oscar, spoke in an interview about what she considered to be "injustices" by the Academy.
At the time, Montenegro thanked her for the compliment, but emphasized that she would give the award to Cate Blanchett. "It's her [Glenn Close's] assessment. I would have given the award to Blanchett. She had played two extraordinary Queen Elizabeths that year," said Fernanda, on Conversa com Bial, in 2020.
More than 20 years later, the much-discussed statuette has become a topic of discussion again, this time for a reason far removed from the cinema. During an interview with Vogue, Gwyneth revealed that the Oscar trophy she won for her performance in "Shakespeare in Love" had been used as a doorstop.The actress received a series of criticisms for having displayed the award in that way, until one of her representatives explained to "Variety" magazine that it was a "joke". Paltrow's team also cited an old interview with "The New York Times", in which the actress mentioned that she keeps the award in her home in New York, in the United States.
As a Brazilian, I feel that Fernanda Torres finally did justice for her mother and showed that Brazilian products also deserve recognition.
It was an epic and historic moment.
