With her Oscar win for the Spanish-language “Emilia Pérez,” Zoe Saldaña joins a short list of performers who have won for non-English language roles. She’s just the third ever to do so for Best Supporting Actress, after Penélope Cruz for “Vicky Christina Barcelona” and Yuh-jung Youn in “Minari.”
But there is further significance in Saldaña’s victory. While several actors have won for non-English roles in American movies, such as Cruz and Youn, Saldaña is the first acting winner from a Best International Feature Oscar nominee in 25 years – since Roberto Benigni exuberantly won Best Actor for 1998’s “Life is Beautiful.” Both that film and “Emilia Pérez” were also Best Picture nominees.
In Oscar history, in fact, Saldaña and Benigni are the only two actors to win for movies also nominated in the international cateorgy, which was referred to as Best Foreign-Language Film in the era when “Life is Beautiful” won the award.
And each were exactly the same age — 46 years old — at the time of their Oscar triumph.
Saldaña referenced her historic Oscar win in an emotional acceptance speech onstage. “I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award,” the actress, visibly moved, said in her speech, noting the significance of her achievement.
“I’m getting an award for a role where I got to sing and speak in Spanish,” Saldaña continued, oscillating between English and Spanish throughout her speech. “My grandmother, if she were here, she would be so delighted. This is for my grandmother!”
Other actors have won for non-American foreign-language films: Sophia Loren in 1961 for “Two Women” and Marion Cotillard in 2008 for “La Vie en Rose” both won the Best Actress Oscar for films that were not recognized in the foreign-language category.
In addition to the aforementioned Cruz and Youn, male actors have also won Oscars for non-English language roles in American movies, including Robert De Niro, who performed entirely in Italian in “The Godfather: Part Two” and Benicio del Toro, who spoke Spanish in “Traffic.”
At this year’s ceremony, a record six acting nominees are for performances entirely or partly in a language other than English. In addition to Saldaña, the list includes her “Emilia Pérez” costar Karla Sofía Gascón (Spanish), Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones from “The Brutalist” (Hungarian), Yura Borisov from “Anora” (Russian) and Fernanda Torres from “I’m Still Here” (Portuguese).
