Walter Salles

Walter Salles’ work, both as a documentary and fiction filmmaker centers around the theme of exile and the search for identity. His feature film "Foreign Land", shot in 1995 and co-directed by Daniela Thomas, holds a crucial place in the renaissance of Brazilian cinema. The film won seven international prizes and has been selected by over thirty film festivals. It was named Best Film of the Year in Brazil in 1996, where it played theatrically for over six months. It was shown to great acclaim in the U.S. in 1997.

His documentaries, including "Life Somewhere Else" ("Socorro Nobre") and "Kracjberg, the Poet of the Remains", among others, have won awards in many international festivals, including the Fipa d’Or at the Festival International des Programmes Audio-Visuels, and the Best Documentary and the Public’s Prize at the Festival dei Popoli in Italy.

Since completing "Central do Brasil", Salles also directed "Minuit" (together with Daniela Thomas), a film for the series "2000, seen by…" for the French-German television station Arte.

 

Fernanda Montenegro

Considered by many to be Brazil’s greatest actress, Fernanda Montenegro (Dora) has acted in more than fifty plays (including works by O’Neill, Durenmatt, Fassbinder) and many feature films. In 1970, Montenegro received the Best Actress Award at the Moscow Film Festival for her role in Paulo Porto’s "Em Família" (which also received the "Best Film" Award at Moscow). She later won the Best Actress Award at Italy’s Taormina Film Festival (1977) for her role in "Tudo Bem", directed by Arnoldo Jabor, and starred in Leon Hirszman’s "They Don’t Wear Black Tie", which won the Golden Lion at the 1980 Venice Film Festival. Montenegro’s other film credits are: "A Falecida" by Leon Hirszman, Suzana Amaral’s "The Hour of the Star", and Carlos Diegues’ "See This Song".

 

Marilia Pêra

Hailed as "one of the decade’s (1980’s) ten best actresses" by Pauline Kael, Marilia Pêra (Irene) won the National Society of Film Critics award for Best Actress in 1982 for her role in Hector Babenco’s acclaimed "Pixote", and has also received Best Actress awards at the Gramado Film Festival (Triple Award Winner) and at the Cartegena Film Festival for Carlos Diegues’ "Better Days Ahead". Her other films include "Bar Esperança", Paul Morissey’s "Mixed Blood", "Angels of the Night", "The Interview", and Carlos Diegues’ "Tieta".

 

Vinicius de Oliveira"

Josué is Vinicius de Oliveira’s first film role. He was ten years old when he approached director Walter Salles at the Rio de Janeiro Airport, where he worked as a shoeshine boy. Tested against more than 1500 other young actors for the role of Josué, his performance was so convincing that he was immediately given the part. A born actor, he proved extremely responsive to direction and demonstrated an amazing capacity to concentrate during the most demanding film scenes.

 

 

centraldobrasil@videofilmes.com.br