The 2025 Golden Globes was full of surprises – including Fernanda Torres beating out Nicole Kidman, Tilda Swinton, and Kate Winslet to win Best Actress.
Torres, 59, took home her first Golden Globe on Sunday night (5 January) for the film I’m Still Here, becoming the first Brazilian female actor to win the award for Best Actress in a Drama.
Her victory was one of the evening’s many notable moments, with Torres herself looking shocked at hearing her name called by presenter Viola Davis.
Torres’s category was considered a competitive one, with other nominees including Pamela Anderson for The Last Showgirl, Angelina Jolie for Maria, Nicole Kidman for Babygirl, Tilda Swinton for The Room Next Door, and Kate Winslet for Lee.
“My god, I didn’t prepare anything because I was late already,” Torres admitted during her acceptance speech. “And this is such an amazing year for female performances. There are so many actresses here who I admire so much.”
Torres went on to dedicate the award to her mother, stating: “She was here 25 years ago. And this is proof that art can endure through life, even in difficult moments like this amazing story.
“There’s something that is happening now in the world with so much fear. And this is a film that helped us to think how to survive in tough times like this.”
Torres is the daughter of actor Fernanda Montenegro, who was previously nominated in the same category in 1999 for Central Station. She was nominated for an Oscar for the same role, eventually losing to Gwyneth Paltrow.
Montenegro was the first Brazilian female actor to be nominated, with her daughter now becoming the second.
In I’m Still Here, Torres plays Eunice Paiva, the wife of a former Brazilian congressman who is “disappeared” during the country’s military dictatorship, which ran from 1964 to 1985.
The other winners of the night included Adrian Brody’s low-budget immigration movie The Brutalist and Disney Plus’s historical epic Shōgun.
Zoe Saldaña took home the acting prize for Best Musical/Comedy for her lead role in Netflix’s Emilia Perez, with her co-star Selena Gomez – who was nominated for the same prize – being praised for her reaction to losing the award to Saldaña.
You can find the full list of winners here.
You can catch up with everything that happened at the 2025 Golden Globes, including Seth Rogen’s “bleeped” joke and Demi Moore’s acceptance speech, at The Independent’s live blog here.
