The best international feature Academy Award for Walter Salles’ timely drama backdropped the annual celebrations and validated a political movement: “It’s hard to put into words just how big of a moment this is.

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 its first Oscars win on Sunday in the international film category.

Brazilian movie "I Am Still Here", set against the backdrop of the military dictatorship and recounting the true story of a mother of five whose husband disappears, made history on Sunday by earning Brazil its first Oscar in a main category.

Brazilian film 'I Am Still Here,' directed by Walter Salles, made history by winning an Oscar in a main category. It tells Eunice Paiva's true story, set during Brazil's military dictatorship, highlighting her family's struggle.

I’m Still Here, directed by Walter Salles, tells the true story of Eunice Paiva and her family after her husband, politician Rubens Paiva, is arrested and mysteriously disappears amid Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s.

“I’m Still Here” won in a category that included France’s entry, the Spanish-language musical “Emilia Pérez,” which was once an Oscars front-runner; the Danish social drama “The Girl With the Needle”; the wordless Latvian animated film “Flow”; and “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” a film shot in secret in Iran and submitted by Germany.

The film tells the true story of Eunice Paiva's struggle to uncover the truth about her husband's forced disappearance in 1971.