Oscars 2025: Fernanda Torres, Fernanda Montenegro, and the full-circle moment 26 years in the making - legacy explained

Some stories don’t end—they just wait for the right moment to come full circle. One of them happened in the Oscars 2025.

Disclaimer: This piece combines analysis with the author's perspective.

Back in 1999, Fernanda Montenegro walked into the Oscars as a frontrunner. Her performance in Central do Brasil (Central Station) was pure acting alchemy—the kind that sticks to your bones and refuses to leave. She was Brazil’s greatest actress, giving the performance of her life, on the biggest stage in cinema. It felt like destiny.

And then—well, we know how that story ended. She didn’t win.

Instead, the award went to Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love, in a decision that, to this day, still sparks debates, side-eyes, and the occasional rage-fueled Twitter thread. Montenegro didn’t take home the statue, but she left something bigger behind: a legacy that reshaped how Brazilian cinema was seen worldwide.

Now, 26 years later, her daughter, Fernanda Torres, stood in that same room, watching as I'm Still Here—a film where they both share the screen—won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film.

This wasn’t just an award. It was a full-circle moment so poetic it could’ve been scripted.

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Icons of Brazilian cinema: Montenegro and Torres

If you don’t know Brazilian cinema, let’s get something straight: Fernanda Montenegro and Fernanda Torres aren’t just actresses—they’re the bedrock of an entire industry. Their careers don’t just span decades; they’ve shaped the very language of Brazilian storytelling.

Montenegro isn’t an actress. She’s an era.

With over 70 years of work, she’s been the face of Brazil’s most ambitious films, its most celebrated plays, and its most unforgettable TV dramas. She’s done Shakespeare, modern realism, political theater—you name it, she’s mastered it. If a role demands soul, weight, and precision, Montenegro doesn’t just deliver—she owns it.

Beyond Central Station, she’s been the beating heart of films like Eles Não Usam Black-Tie (1981), The Other Side of the Street (2004), and O Auto da Compadecida (2000). She was honored by the Brazilian Academy of Letters, proving that her impact goes beyond performance—she is cultural history in motion.

And then there’s Fernanda Torres.

If Montenegro is gravity, Torres is electricity.

From the moment she hit the screen, Torres refused to be “just” the daughter of a legend. She carved her own space with fearlessness, razor-sharp wit, and a magnetic presence that makes it impossible to look away.

She won Best Actress at Cannes in 1986, becoming the youngest Brazilian actress to do so. Then, she went beyond acting—writing, producing, and reshaping the industry in her own way. She’s been in everything from arthouse films to razor-sharp comedies, proving that no genre can contain her.

And now, in I'm Still Here, Montenegro and Torres finally share the screen, playing different versions of the same character—a woman whose personal history is tangled with Brazil’s past. One starts the journey. The other finishes it.

Sound familiar?

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Walter Salles: The director who wove it all together

Of course, this story isn’t just about them. It’s also about the man who tied it all together—Walter Salles.

Salles is the director who first put Brazil on Hollywood’s radar with Central Station. He knows how to capture the weight of silence, the depth of absence, and the poetry in the things left unsaid. His films aren’t just about where people are going—they’re about who they become along the way.

With I'm Still Here, he did more than direct a film. He orchestrated a reckoning.

This wasn’t just another movie. It was a bridge between generations, between two actresses, between the moment that should have been and the moment that finally was.

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The Golden Globe moment that said it all

Before the Oscars, there was the Golden Globes—and that’s when Hollywood finally realized what was coming. Or at least had a glimpse of it, and quite a huge one.

Fernanda Torres won Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, and for a split second, the entire room felt it. Cate Blanchett, ever the definition of class, gave a small nod, the kind that says, Respect. Meryl Streep, who has literally seen it all, clapped with the weight of someone who knew exactly how much this moment meant.

And Jennifer Lawrence?

She didn’t even try to play it cool. The camera caught her mid-gasp, eyebrows raised, mouth slightly open, looking like she just witnessed the cinematic equivalent of a mic drop.

It was the moment Hollywood realized Brazil wasn’t just in the room—it was leading the conversation.

The Oscar Montenegro never won, and the Golden Globe that Torres did

And yet, despite all the love, neither Montenegro nor Torres won Best Actress at the Oscars.

For Montenegro, it was history repeating itself. For Torres, it was the reminder that even when the world is watching, some doors still don’t open. But at this point, who really cares?

Spoiler: A lot of people do.

Montenegro may not have won in 1999, but she shifted the narrative of Brazilian cinema forever. Torres may not have taken home the Oscar, but she became a defining presence in the film that finally did.

One carved the path. The other walked it through the door.

But more than that, they proved that cinema is not just about who gets the trophy—it’s about who leaves a mark that can’t be erased. Montenegro’s name was etched into history long before the Academy ever looked Brazil’s way. Torres, following in her mother’s footsteps yet refusing to walk in her shadow, solidified a presence that is uniquely hers. Together, they turned what could have been just another awards season—the Oscars 2025—into something that transcends accolades.

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Beyond the award: A victory that was always meant to be

There’s a kind of justice in seeing I'm Still Here win. Not because it fixes or rectifies the past, but because it proves what was always true—Brazilian cinema has never needed permission to be extraordinary.

For Montenegro and Torres, this wasn’t just an awards season. This was legacy in motion. This was a win that was always meant to be.

And now, the world finally caught up.