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Walter Salles has revealed he is eager to work again with The Motorcycle Diaries star Gael Bernal García, and that an opportunity nearly arose ahead of his making Oscar-winning drama I’m Still Here.
“We’ve been trying for a long time,” Salles told journalists at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event this weekend, saying they had worked on a project involving characters from different Latin American countries that had not come to fruition.
“I developed it for Gael. I would love to work again with Gael. He’s one of my closest friends and one of the persons I love most in life and in cinema as well, he was an incredible co-author of The Diaries,” Salles said of the Mexican star, whose recent credits include La Máquena and Holland.
“I would love to work with him again. I love the idea of cinema being done by a family, and Gael is certainly part of that family… we see each other all the time but we haven’t worked together as much as we want but… wait.”
Walter Salles touched down in Qatar for a whirlwind 48-hour stay as one of five Qumra Masters at the DFI’s annual project and talent incubator, givng a masterclass and advice to a selection of the participating projects.
It was his final trip before heading back to Brazil for some much-needed R&R after six months on the awards trail with Oscar-winner I’m Still Here.
Salles said his next work priority would be completing his five-part documentary about the life of 1980s soccer star and pro-democracy activist Sócrates (Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira), for a launch in Brazil at the end of the year.
“I haven’t stopped since… Venice so I hope my family hasn’t changed the lock on the door,” he joked. “I’m going to take a few weeks and then I’m entering the editing room.”
The series explores Sócrates’ unusual trajectory from a childhood in the lower Amazonian state of Pará, to becoming a soccer star and launching a democracy movement based on his experiences in the sport.
“Sócrates was a really unique man in the sense that he got a degree in medicine. He became a doctor at the same time as he was playing football, which is a rarity, and in the middle of that, he also perceived that football was an extraordinary vehicle for political transformation, and he blended all of that into one journey,” explained Salles.
Part of the show had been shot in Italy with one entire episode devoted to Brazil’s infamous defeat against Italy in the 1982 FIFA world club, dubbed the “Sarrià Tragedy’ back home, he revealed.
“Some of the players of the Italian team in 1982 were very generous and gave us interviews. We did extensive work in Italy,” said Salles.
Oscar journey
The director also reflected on his awards season journey with I’m Still Here which began at the Venice Film Festival last September, where the film won Best Screenplay, and culminated in the Best International Feature Film Academy Award on March 2, preceded by a Best Actress Golden Globe for the film’s star Fernanda Torres.
Looking back over the last half year, Salles said the act of promoting a film in the Oscar race had changed considerably since his previous runs with Central Station and The Motorcycle Diaries in 1999 and 2005.
“The word ‘campaign’ was never brought up, or very rarely… it was really about cinema and the films,” he told press before heading to the airport. “I find it very strange that this word is used all the time because the discussion should be only about cinema.
“What kept us going was the fact that everybody, starting with Sony Classics in the U.S., understood that the film had to speak for itself. So, the only campaign… was to invite people to see the film because at the end of the day, subtitled films face a challenge,” he continued.
“Very early on in the American market, Sony Classics started to invite people to see the film and ultimately in Europe, we didn’t campaign, quote, unquote, we only launched the film in different countries.”
Salles recounted how I’m Still Here had received the support of high-profile cinema figures across Europe as it rolled out in theatres in the region, including Valeria Golino in Italy, Wim Wenders in Germany and Olivier Assayas in France, while Santiago Mitre (Argentina 85) got behind the drama in Argentina.
“For those who have been in Los Angeles, have you seen a billboard with our film? No. A TV spot with our film? No. An ad with our film? No. But there were people who actually saw the film,” he said.
This in turn had led to a higher level of public ratings, alongside critics’ ratings, which in turn helped stoke buzz around the film, he suggested.
Salles also touched on independent cinema’s strong showing at the 2025 Academy Awards, topped by Sean Baker’s Anora taking five trophies including Best Picture and also including Brady Corbet’sThe Brutalist winning in three categories and the triumph of Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow in the Best Animation category.
“This specific Oscars was the celebration of independent cinema as a whole, in all fields,” said Salles, adding he agreed wholeheartedly with Baker’s battle-cry acceptance speech calling for films to be shown in movie theaters.
“I would subscribe to everything that he said that day, especially about the importance of the collective experience. At the end of the day, we do what we do collectively, to be shared collectively.”
He said I’m Still Here – about the true story of Eunice Paiva, whose left-wing activist husband Rubens Paiva disappeared in the early years of the 1964 to 1985 Brazilian military dictatorship – would not have had the same impact in Brazil without a theatrical release.
“That so many different generations came to the cinemas is what allowed them to then articulate thoughts that were somehow ignited by the film, and do their own videos… to tell stories about their families in that era, and that somehow created the need for the film to be seen,” he said.
“Families went to see the film, but also groups of 10 friends, just to discuss the film afterwards. Would that ever have happened on a platform?… What happened on March 2 was quite unique in this sense. All the films we mentioned… they were done collectively and shared collectively.”
