Brazil has won its first Oscar for international feature for I’m Still Here, the story of a family broken apart amid a dictatorship. Notably, the feature edged out France’s Emilia Pérez, which took home multiple Oscars earlier in the evening.

Director Walter Salles credited the woman who inspired the film — Eunice Paiva — and the women who brought her to life, daughter-mother pair Fernanda Torres and Fernanda Montenegro.

“This goes for a woman who, after a loss suffered during an authoritarian regime, decided not to bend — and to resist. So this prize goes to her. Her name is Eunice Paiva,” Salles said to massive applause, including from star Torres.

Brazil was previously nominated 5 times, while Salles himself was nominated for Central Station (1998).

My Osvcar Book:

“The human rights abuses of systematic torture, murder and forced disappearances represent an open wound on the psyches of those nations, for which cinema has often served as a vessel for collective memory. It’s not often, however, that the spirit of protest against the horrors of junta rule is viewed through such an intimate lens as I’m Still Here.”