Walter Salles

Walter Moreira Salles Júnior (/ˈsɑːlɪs/; Brazilian Portuguese: [ˈvawteʁ ˈsalis]; born 12 April 1956) is a Brazilian filmmaker. A major figure of the Resumption Cinema in Brazil, Salles is widely regarded as one of the greatest Brazilian filmmakers of all time. His accolades include an Academy Award accepted for Best International Film, three Cannes Film Festival prizes, three Venice Film Festival prizes, two British Academy Film Awards, a Golden Bear and a Golden Globe.
He first became internationally known for his film Central Station (1998), which earned two Academy Awards nominations, for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actress for Fernanda Montenegro, winning a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film as well as the Golden Bear at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival. His subsequent works include Behind the Sun (2001), The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), Dark Water (2005) and On the Road (2012). At the 97th Academy Awards, his critically acclaimed film I'm Still Here (2024) received a rare double nomination for Best Picture and Best International Feature; it won the latter, becoming the first Brazilian film to win an Academy Award in any category.
Heir to Itaú Unibanco, with a fortune valued at US$4.5 billion (R$24.26 billion), Salles is the third richest filmmaker in the world.
Salles was born on 12 April 1956, in Rio de Janeiro. Salles resided in both France and the United States throughout his youth, following his diplomat father, Walter Moreira Salles. At the age of 15, Salles returned to Brazil under the dictatorship of Emílio Garrastazu Médici.
Salles attended the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. He originally gained experience in film through non-fiction documentaries. He worked on documentaries for ten years before switching to fictional films.
Salles's first notable film was Terra Estrangeira (Foreign Land), released in Brazil in 1995. Locally, it was widely acclaimed by film critics and a minor box-office hit, and it was selected by over 40 film festivals worldwide. In 1998, he released Central Station to widespread international acclaim and two Academy Awards nominations, for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Fernanda Montenegro) and Best Foreign Language Film. Salles won a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, becoming the first Brazilian to win a Golden Globe.
In 2001, Abril Despedaçado (Behind the Sun), based on a novel by Albanian author Ismail Kadare and starring Rodrigo Santoro, was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globe. Salles said: "... there was one book that resonated to the point where I couldn't forget it. And that was Broken April by Ismail Kadare. The book was handed to me by my younger brother, who said: 'If I know you well, this will touch you.' ... What really struck me was the opposition between the atavistic violence described in the book and the possibility for that violence to be overpowered by the discovery of poetry and literature and ultimately by brotherly love." Both films were produced by veteran Arthur Cohn, and had worldwide distribution.
In 2003, Salles was voted one of the 40 Best Directors in the World by The Guardian. His biggest international success has been Diarios de Motocicleta ("The Motorcycle Diaries"), a 2004 film about the life of young Ernesto Guevara, who later became known as Che Guevara. It was Salles's first foray as director of a film in a language other than his native Portuguese (Spanish, in this case) and quickly became a box-office hit in Latin America and Europe. He won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and François Chalais Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2005, Salles released his first Hollywood film, Dark Water, a remake of the 2002 Japanese film of the same name. He also helped to produce the Argentine picture Sisters (Spanish: Hermanas), which was a major success. In 2006, Salles wrote and directed a segment in the French film Paris, je t'aime (French for "Paris, I love you") with Daniela Thomas. The film is a collection of 18 shorter segments made by different 21 directors and set in different arrondissements of Paris. Salles' segment called Loin du 16 (literally: Far from the 16th) and took place in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. In 2007, Salles took part in a similar project called To Each His Own Cinema (French: Chacun son cinéma) in the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival. He made a three-minute segment called A 8.944 km de Cannes (English: 5,557 miles from Cannes).
In 2008, Salles wrote and directed the film Linha de Passe, also with Thomas. It is a story about four brothers from a poor family who need to fight to follow their dreams. He was nominated for the Palme d'Or and Sandra Corveloni won the Best Actress award for her role in this film at 2008 Cannes Film Festival. In 2012, Salles released José Rivera's screenplay adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, with Francis Ford Coppola producing. The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2024, twelve years after his last feature film, Salles released I'm Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui), based on the book of the same name by Marcelo Rubens Paiva; the film tackles the arrest and disappearance of Rubens Paiva in 1971, Marcelo's father, during the military dictatorship in Brazil. The film was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 81st Venice International Film Festival and Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, where it won the Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama category for Fernanda Torres, becoming the first Brazilian actress to win the Golden Globe for acting. For I’m Still Here, at the 97th Academy Awards, Salles accepted the Oscar for Best International Feature Film on behalf of Brazil and the film creatives as a whole.
In 2009, Salles signed a petition in support of film director Roman Polanski, calling for his release after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl.
In December 2023, alongside 50 other filmmakers, Salles signed an open letter published in Libération demanding a ceasefire and an end to the killing of civilians amid the 2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, and for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to be established for humanitarian aid, and the release of hostages.
In February 2025, Salles stated during an interview to CNN that his movie I'm Still Here is a product of the Brazilian democracy, after the 2022 Brazilian general election and the 2023 Brasília attacks, and that he wouldn't have had the opportunity to film during the government of Jair Bolsonaro.
As of January 5, 2025, he has an estimated net worth of $4.2 billion. He is the third richest filmmaker in the world, behind Steven Spielberg ($5.3 billion) and George Lucas ($5.2 billion).
In July 2022 Salles was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of letters by the University of Reading.