When Spanish actress Penélope Cruz announced that “I’m Still Here” was the winner of best international film at the Academy Awards, Brazilians roared at home and on the streets, where Carnival festivities have been ongoing since Saturday.

Walter Salles’ deeply moving drama “I’m Still Here” has won the Academy Award for best international feature, marking a historic first for Brazil. The film, which tells the real-life story of Eunice Paiva’s decades-long search for justice after her husband’s disappearance during Brazil’s military dictatorship,

I’m Still Here,” a film about a family torn apart by the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil for more than two decades, gave Brazil’s first Oscars win on Sunday in the best international film category.

I'm Still Here,' Walter Salles' drama film starring Fernanda Torres, has won Best International Feature Film at the Oscars

By Annie Aguiar The Brazilian film “I’m Still Here,” based on the true story of an activist whose dissident politician husband disappeared at the hands of a military government, won the Academy Award for best international feature.