‘The Secret Agent’s Wagner Moura Becomes First Brazilian To Win Golden Globe For Actor In A Motion Picture – Drama, Dedicates Award To “The Ones That Are Sticking With Their Values In Difficult Moments”

It’s been a good couple of years for Brazilians at the Golden Globes. Last year, Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres became the first to win Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for I’m Still Here — and now, Wagner Moura has become the first Brazilian to win Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for The Secret Agent.

“The Secret Agent is a film about memory, or the lack of memory, and generational trauma,” said the actor in his acceptance speech. “I think that if trauma can be passed along generations, values can too. So this is to the ones that are sticking with their values in difficult moments.”

Moura also acknowledged his team for their “friendship,” his fellow nominees, distributor Neon, and filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho. “You’re a genius and you are my brother,” he told him, “and I thank you for this, and for many more other things.”

Moura had previously been Golden Globe-nominated in 2015 for his breakout turn as Pablo Escobar in Netflix’s Narcos. Tonight, he bested competitors including Michael B. Jordan (Sinners), Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams), Oscar Isaac (Frankenstein), Dwayne Johnson (The Smashing Machine), and Jeremy Allen White (Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere). His performance in The Secret Agent won him the Cannes Film Festival’s prize for Best Actor and has also led to nominations at the Critics Choice Awards, as well as the Gotham Awards.

Written and directed by Filho, The Secret Agent earlier in the night won Best Foreign Language Film and was also the first Brazilian film nominated for Best Motion Picture – Drama. Released in North America in November, it’s a political thriller set during Brazil’s 1977 military dictatorship, which watches as a hunted political dissident (Moura) returns to Recife to reunite with his son, only to find himself forced to live like a spy to survive.

Pic was this year’s most awarded film at Cannes, also winning Best Director, the Art House Cinema Award, and the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film, and has made the Oscars shortlist for Best International Feature Film, after being named as Brazil’s official entry for the prize.

Tonight’s Golden Globes ceremony took place at The Beverly Hilton with comedian Nikki Glaser returning as host.