Wagner Moura became the first Brazilian actor to win Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 11.
The 49-year-old star took the stage at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles to accept the prize for his role in The Secret Agent, delivering a speech that linked generational trauma to enduring values.
“The Secret Agent is a film about memory, or the lack of memory, and generational trauma,” Moura said. “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.”
The Winning Performance
In The Secret Agent, Moura portrays Armando, a former university professor trying to escape political persecution by Brazil’s military dictatorship in 1977. The performance previously earned him the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where director Kleber Mondonça Filho also won Best Director.
**The film is nominated in two additional Globe categories:
- Best Motion Picture
- Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language
The Contenders
Moura’s victory came against a competitive field that included:
- Joel Edgerton, Train Dreams – playing railroad worker Robert Grainier in the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the 20th century
- Oscar Isaac, Frankenstein – starring as Victor Frankenstein in Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel
- Dwayne Johnson, The Smashing Machine – portraying former mixed martial arts fighter Mark Kerr, gaining roughly 30 lbs. of muscle for the role
- Michael B. Jordan, Sinners – in dual roles as twins Smoke and Stack opening a nightclub in 1932 Mississippi
- Jeremy Allen White, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere – depicting Bruce Springsteen during the creation of his 1982 album Nebraska
Additional Nominations
Each contender’s film received multiple Globe nods:
| Film | Total Nominations | Key Categories |
|---|---|---|
| Frankenstein | 5 | Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Supporting Actor (Jacob Elordi) |
| Sinners | 6 | Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, Best Original Score |
| Train Dreams | 2 | Best Original Song |
White, already a three-time Globe winner for The Bear, channels Springsteen in 1981-82 as the musician wrestles with childhood scars left by his father Douglas, played by Stephen Graham.
Jordan’s Sinners follows twins returning to Mississippi to launch a club for Black patrons, only to confront a vampire drawn to their cousin’s musical gift. The film ranks as the third-most-nominated title at this year’s Globes.
Globes Night Details
The 83rd annual Golden Globe Awards unfolded at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, airing on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. The ceremony honored achievements in film and television across dramatic and comedic categories.
Moura’s historic win marks the first time a Brazilian actor has claimed the top dramatic film acting prize, capping a career that includes acclaimed roles in Narcos and Civil War.
