Walter Salles
Lifetime Achievement Award in Film
The International Peace Alliance | Alliance Internationale de la Paix is proud to announce that acclaimed Brazilian filmmaker Walter Moreira Salles Jr. has been selected as the recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award in Film. The prestigious award will be formally presented at the Peace Ambassadors Awards Gala and Grand Ball, held on September 26, 2025, at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto, Canada.
A pioneering figure in Brazil’s Cinema da Retomada (Resumption Cinema) movement, Mr. Salles is recognized as one of the most influential Brazilian filmmakers of all time. His films have earned international acclaim for their artistic depth, humanism, and social relevance. Over his distinguished career, Mr. Salles has received an Academy Award, three Cannes Film Festival prizes, three Venice Film Festival prizes, two BAFTA Awards, a Golden Bear, and a Golden Globe.
Mr. Salles gained global recognition in 1998 with Central Station, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and earned two Academy Award nominations. He later directed acclaimed English-language films such as Dark Water and On the Road, and achieved widespread success with the Che Guevara biopic The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), an international arthouse hit.
In 2024, after a 12-year hiatus from Brazilian cinema, Mr. Salles returned with I’m Still Here, the powerful true story of Eunice Paiva, a human rights activist who confronted the forced disappearance of her husband during Brazil’s military dictatorship. The film earned three Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and made history by winning Best International Feature Film, the first for Brazil. Lead actress Fernanda Torres won the Golden Globe for Best Actress for her role.
Mr. Salles’ body of work explores themes of identity, displacement, and the impact of social and political landscapes on individual lives. His characters often face poverty, repression, and systemic injustice, ultimately discovering resilience, courage, and renewal. Recent work has continued to focus on individuals who resist injustice, echoing the mission and values of the International Peace Alliance | Alliance Internationale de la Paix.
Mr. Salles has reasserted the power of film as both cultural memory and social conscience. With each film, he invites audiences to witness the human condition with empathy and courage. Through his enduring contributions to film and peace, Walter Salles has embodied the ideals of the International Peace Alliance | Alliance Internationale de la Paix—that art, courage, and truth remain vital pathways to global understanding and harmony.