1: I'm Still Here (4.811 out of 5)
As the festival proceeded this year, its top-3 in the audience ratings shifted wildly. Basically, any movie in the top-7 had a decent chance to end up as the final number one, because the differences in average mean ratings were so small, a few votes in a single screening would change the list already.
But in the end, Walter Salles' disappearance drama I'm Still Here won, the only film to breach the 4.8 barrier this year. It might win an Oscar for best film this evening (or best Non-English spoken Film at least), and actress Fernanda Torres can also win one. All would be justified.
In 1970, Brazil was ruled as a military dictatorship, and the film shows what happened in the Pavia household in Rio after the father of the family, Rubens Pavia, was asked to answer a few questions at the police station and subsequently disappeared. Rubens' son wrote a book about that difficult time in their lives, and the heroic role mother Eunice played. Walter Salles' film is an excellent take on that book. In my review, I said the following:
"Director Walter Salles chooses to focus totally on the family, making Rubens disappear from us, the audience, as well. No torture scenes are shown, we are as much in the dark as his family is. And because he is very much present in the first part of the film, he is very much missed in the remainder of it. It is a non-sensational approach which, in contradiction, works sensationally well. For two hours, you live with these people, and their struggles are yours.
I'm Still Here is also not just a voyage into despair. You see the family suffer, but you also share in their resilience and stubbornness. Eunice Pavia became a world famous fighter for human rights, defending the Amazon rainforest and the tribes living in them, and remained a thorn in the side of right-wing political parties for her entire life. Stick around for the end credits too, as the film is full of photographs, family snapshots, several of which are important to the story. When the end titles run, you get to see how carefully these were all reproduced, as you are shown the originals with the real Rubens, the real Eunice, and their real children.
One of the most powerful films I have seen on the subject, treating it with respect and intimacy, I'm Still Here is a punch to the gut, but a good one."
Nice to know the general audiences in Rotterdam agreed with me. And that concludes the top 20 this year!
(UPDATE: I'm Still Here did actually end up winning the Oscar for best non-English film.)