Laura Zimmermann: creating period-authentic sounds for I’m Still Here

From the directorial mind of Walter Salles, 2024’s I’m Still Here marked itself as a historic moment for Brazilian cinema. Picking up the Oscar for Best International Feature Film earlier this year, it is the first-ever Brazilian film production to win big at the Academy Awards. Part of this incredible success is thanks to its production sound mixer, Laura Zimmermann, who also won the 2025 Brazilian Film Academy’s Grande Otelo Award for Best Sound.

I’m Still Here stars Fernanda Torres as Eunice Paiva, a mother and activist who must deal with the forced disappearance of her husband, the politician Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello), amidst the military dictatorship in Brazil in the 1970s.

Zimmermann set about creating authentic, period-accurate sound for the political and biographical drama film. She relied on an extensive kit of Lectrosonics Wireless products, including SMQV, SSM, LMB and HMa transmitters, and DSR4, SRc, DCR822and DSQD receivers to capture the project's uncommon audio requirements.

“Walter (Salles), the director, cares very deeply about the authenticity of sound in his films, which made for a great collaborative experience,” shares Zimmerman. “The film's setting was from the 1970s through the present day, and he absolutely wanted the audio to match the time and have those vintage sonic textures. To achieve the acoustic environments Walter had in mind, I was given the opportunity to have full sets, solely dedicated to the capture of sound, without the camera rolling.”

“It was creatively so liberating," Zimmermann recalls, “We travelled to a remote island to record the sound of ocean waves lapping, without the noise pollution that had built up over the last 50 years in the region where the scene was set. The production team sourced vintage cars from the time, where all the motors were untouched, with all original parts, so the idling and accelerations of Eunice’s car would sound as close to the real experience of sitting in it.”

“I was able to work hand-in-hand with the art department to acoustically prepare the sets, especially the main house, which was almost like another character of the movie," Zimmermann notes. “They acoustically treated the tiles and walls to control reverberation. This preparation was key because Walter preferred the cast to be able to act more freely and spontaneously, and the treatment ensured I would capture the audio we needed without heavily marking the actors.”

The location sound work was split between Rio and São Paulo, so Zimmermann needed wireless systems that could deliver consistency in Brazil’s notoriously “messy frequency spectrum,” Zimmerman says. "You have to care about frequency coordination when you work here in Brazil, but once I determined the best frequencies, Lectrosonics performed so consistently. We filmed in the house for six weeks, and I never had to change frequencies. It was great."

“This was the biggest project I’ve ever worked on, so I needed rock-solid transmitters and receivers. That’s why I chose Lectrosonics,” says Zimmermann. “My kit for I’m Still Here included SMQV transmitters and SSM micro transmitters extensively for the cast, LMB transmitters for the cars and other objects, and HMA plug-on transmitters for directional and cardioid microphones and booms. We used DSR4, SRC, and DSQD receivers, and of course, DCR822 receivers, which are my favourites.”

Reflecting on the film's international acclaim, Zimmermann acknowledges the magnitude of the project. "It's a big movie: the first film ever from Brazil to receive an Oscar. It was named one of the Top 5 International Films of 2024 by the National Board of Review and had the highest-grossing box office for a Brazilian film since the COVID-19 pandemic. I was honoured to be a part of something so significant.”