Walter Salles was born on April 12, 1956, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Director of documentaries and films of fiction, Salles' work revolves around the themes of traveling and search of identity. Socorro Nobre (Life Somewhere Else) is a 1995 documentary on the correspondence between a woman in prison and a Brazilian sculptor living in exile. It was awarded the Fipa d'Or in 1996. He went on to film Central do Brasil, earning him the Golden Bear at the 1998 Berlin International Film Festival, Best Screenplay at the Sundance Institute-NHK, Best Foreign Film at the British Academy Awards, Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes, as well as fifty other international prizes and two Academy Award nominations. Salles co-directed two films with the Daniela Thomas Theater: Foreign Land, the exile story of Brazilian youths in the 1990s, which was awarded the Grand Prix du Public at the Rencontres de Cinéma de Paris in 1995, and O Primeiro Dia (Midnight), which received over ten awards, including Best Latin-American Film at the Mexican Academy Awards. His next to last film, Abril Despedaçado (Behind the Sun) (2001), based on the Ismail Kadaré novel, won the Little Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at both the British Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. He is currently working on his next project, Voyage à Motocyclette, which is the story of two youths, Ernesto Guevara and Alberto Granado, who decide to travel Latin America on an old 1952 motorcycle.
Jury attendance
- Member Feature films, 2002
- Member Cinéfondation & Short Films, 1999
