Next Sunday will be the 2022 edition of the Oscars. And once again the first statue for Brazil is expected. Asha is in the film Where I Live, which is competing in the short-film documentary category. The film is directed by Brazilian filmmaker Pedro Kos. John Schenk, and is an American production., available on Netflix.
The documentary is 40 minutes long and depicts the lives of homeless people in American cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.
This relationship between Brazil and Oscar has been going on for a few years. With some ‘hits on the beam’ and some with victories that could be considered ‘half Brazilian’.
Brazil’s first participation in the Oscars was in 1945. The representative of Brazil was Arya Barroso. ,Rio de Janeiro” competed in the Best Original Song category for the film Brazil, an American production.
And speaking of Rio de Janeiro, the song ‘Real in Rio’ from the movie ‘Rio’ was Brazil’s strongest chance of victory. The song, by Carlinhos Brown and Sergio Mendes, competed with the singles contestant in 2012 for Best Original Song Statue, but lost.
A great and unforgettable moment for Brazil at the Oscars happened in 1999 with ‘Central do Brasil’. Walter Salles’ feature was nominated for Best Foreign Film, now called International, and Fernanda Montenegro, Fabulous, received a landmark nomination for Best Actress. The actress’s statue went to Gwyneth Paltrow for ‘Shakespeare in Love’. Foreign film wins Italy’s ‘A Vida a Bella’ directed by Roberto Benigni.
Another Brazilian landmark at the Oscars is ‘City of God’, a feature by Fernando Meirelles, one of the most important in our cinematography. He was ignored for the Foreign Film Competition in 2003, but the following year appeared in 4 Statuelets, disputed over director (Fernando Meirelles), adapted screenplay (Braulio Mantovani), photography (César Charlon) and editing (Daniel Rezende). . It didn’t happen, but it made history.
In a foreign or international film, in addition to Central do Brasil, Brazilian cinema has already received three other nominations: ‘O pagador de promisores’ by Anselmo Duarte in 1963; ‘O Quattilho’ by Fabio Barreto, 1996; and “What is this fellow?”, by Bruno Barreto, in 1998.
Returning to the documentary ‘Where I Live’ category, Brazil already had five nominees, but always in long-running controversy. The last of them was ‘Democracy in Vertige’ by Petra Costa in 2020.
Brazil was nominated only once in two other categories. ‘Uma Historia de Futebol’ by Paulo Machline was nominated for Best Short Film in 2001; and ‘O menino e o mundo’ by Ali Abreu, lost the award for Best Animation in 2016 to ‘Divertida Mante’.
Rewards with Brazilian ‘Partnership’
With no official statue of its own, Brazil can at least say it has some stakes.
In 1986, the film ‘The Kiss of the Spider Woman’ earned a Best Actor award for William Hurt. The film is a co-production between Brazil and the United States, directed by Argentine-born Brazilian Hector Babenco, featuring a Brazilian cast.
In 2005, the award for Best Original Song by Uruguayan Jorge Drexler was given to ‘El Outro Lado del Río’. The song is on the soundtrack to ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ by Brazilian Walter Salles.
“Black Orpheus” won the Oscar for foreign film in 1950, but France entered it. French director Marcel Camus’ feature film was inspired by Vinicius de Moraes’ play “Orfeu da Conciço”.
