Walter Salles Biography Quotes 26 Report mistakes

Early Life and Family
Walter Moreira Salles Jr., known professionally as Walter Salles, was born on April 12, 1956, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He grew up in a family that was deeply engaged with Brazilian public life and culture. His father, Walter Moreira Salles, was a prominent banker and diplomat who played an important role in Brazil's financial sector and helped establish the Instituto Moreira Salles, a cultural foundation that would become a reference point for photography, music, literature, and film. Among Walter Salles's siblings, the documentarian Joao Moreira Salles became one of his closest creative partners, while Pedro Moreira Salles emerged as a notable figure in banking and cultural philanthropy. The family environment reinforced a broad curiosity about society and the arts, a grounding that shaped the filmmaker's sensibility and his commitment to telling stories about identity, displacement, and the human condition.

Beginnings in Film
Salles entered the audiovisual field in the 1980s and, with Joao Moreira Salles, co-founded the Rio-based production company VideoFilmes. The company quickly evolved into a hub for independent work, producing documentaries and features that helped revitalize contemporary Brazilian cinema. Early in his career, Salles gravitated toward non-fiction and hybrid forms. Short and mid-length works such as Socorro Nobre reflected his interest in intimate portraits of resilience; that film followed a Brazilian inmate and her transformative correspondence with the artist Frans Krajcberg, underlining the director's recurring concern with dignity and empathy.

In the mid-1990s he began collaborating closely with the filmmaker and theater artist Daniela Thomas. Together they co-directed Terra Estrangeira (Foreign Land), a stark, black-and-white road movie that examined migration and economic precarity in the aftermath of Brazil's early-1990s financial turbulence. The film captured critical attention at international festivals and introduced Salles's signature approach: journeys that double as searches for self and community, blending genre elements with social observation.

Breakthrough and International Recognition
Walter Salles achieved global prominence with Central do Brasil (Central Station), released in 1998. Co-written with Marcos Bernstein and Joao Emanuel Carneiro and photographed by Walter Carvalho, the film followed a retired schoolteacher, played by Fernanda Montenegro, who writes letters for illiterate passengers in Rio's main train station, and a boy, Vinicius de Oliveira, in a quest across Brazil's interior. Central Station won major prizes at international festivals, drew wide critical acclaim, and earned Academy Award nominations, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actress for Fernanda Montenegro. Its success helped reintroduce Brazilian cinema to worldwide audiences and cemented Salles as a leading voice of a new generation of Latin American filmmakers. Producer Arthur Cohn was instrumental in bringing the film to a global audience, and the collaboration would continue.

Salles followed with Abril Despedacado (Behind the Sun) in 2001, produced with Arthur Cohn and inspired by Ismail Kadare's novel Broken April. Set in Brazil's Northeast, the film examined cycles of vendetta and family honor, and featured performances by Rodrigo Santoro and Jose Dumont. It continued Salles's exploration of landscapes as moral and emotional terrains, where characters confront inherited violence and the possibility of renewal.

Later Work and International Projects
His next major project, Diarios de Motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries) in 2004, broadened his international reach. Adapted by screenwriter Jose Rivera from the travel diaries of Ernesto Che Guevara and Alberto Granado, and produced with long-term champions of the project that included Robert Redford among the executive producers and Michael Nozik among the producers, the film starred Gael Garcia Bernal and Rodrigo de la Serna. With cinematography by Eric Gautier and music by Gustavo Santaolalla, it traced a formative road journey across South America and emphasized observation, solidarity, and awakening rather than ideology. The film won numerous awards, and its song Al Otro Lado del Rio by Jorge Drexler received the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

In 2005 Salles directed Dark Water, an English-language remake of a Japanese psychological thriller, with Jennifer Connelly in the lead. The project demonstrated his ability to translate his sensibility to different genres and production contexts while maintaining an attention to character and atmosphere. He returned to Brazil for Linha de Passe (2008), co-directed with Daniela Thomas, an ensemble drama set on the outskirts of Sao Paulo. Sandra Corveloni's performance earned the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, and the film reaffirmed Salles's interest in social margins and fragile aspirations.

Salles then undertook a long-gestating adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, premiering in 2012. The film, developed with the participation of Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope after they had held the rights for years, featured Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Viggo Mortensen, and Kirsten Dunst. Working again with Jose Rivera on the screenplay and Eric Gautier on cinematography, Salles emphasized restlessness and cross-cultural encounters over nostalgic myth, bridging North and South American experiences through a director known for road narratives.

He continued his engagement with world cinema and documentary in projects such as Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang, a feature-length portrait of the influential Chinese filmmaker. The documentary, built from long conversations and travel through places central to Jia Zhangke's work, reflected Salles's ongoing admiration for filmmakers who use realism to probe social transformation.

Themes and Style
Across fiction and documentary, Salles returns to journeys, borders, and encounters between strangers. He often favors location shooting, uses non-professional actors alongside established performers, and collaborates with cinematographers such as Walter Carvalho and Eric Gautier to render landscapes as expressive and moral fields. His screenplays, frequently developed with writers like Marcos Bernstein, Joao Emanuel Carneiro, and Jose Rivera, balance intimate character arcs with broader social textures. Music has a notable presence: collaborations with composers including Antonio Pinto, Jaques Morelenbaum, and Gustavo Santaolalla shape the films' emotional undertow without overwhelming their observational tone.

Collaborators and Creative Community
Salles's core community includes his brother Joao Moreira Salles at VideoFilmes, whose production infrastructure has supported both of their projects and a broader circle of Brazilian filmmakers. Daniela Thomas has been a vital creative partner in co-direction and co-writing. Actors such as Fernanda Montenegro, Vinicius de Oliveira, Sandra Corveloni, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Rodrigo de la Serna have given defining performances under his direction. Producers like Arthur Cohn, Michael Nozik, and collaborators including Robert Redford and Francis Ford Coppola have connected his work to international networks. Behind the camera, the contributions of Walter Carvalho and Eric Gautier have been essential to the visual language that ties together his Brazilian and international films.

Influence and Legacy
Walter Salles emerged as a central figure in the resurgence of Brazilian cinema from the 1990s onward. By pairing accessible narratives with rigorous observation, he helped audiences outside Brazil engage with the country beyond cliches, while strengthening creative ties across the Americas and Europe. His films have been presented and awarded at leading festivals in Berlin, Cannes, and beyond, and they have contributed to the careers of artists in front of and behind the camera. Through VideoFilmes and the cultural ecosystem associated with his family, including the Instituto Moreira Salles, he has supported the circulation of images and ideas that shape how Brazil and Latin America understand themselves. Salles's enduring fascination with travel, chance encounters, and the moral choices of ordinary people continues to define a body of work that is both locally grounded and internationally resonant.

Our collection contains 26 quotes who is written by Walter, under the main topics: Movie - Book - Health - Change - Human Rights.

Other people realated to Walter: Mia Maestro (Actress), Jennifer Connelly (Actress)