Marília Pêra was a Brazilian actress hailed as "one of the decade's [1980s] ten best actresses" by Pauline Kael. Pêra won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1982 for her role in Hector Babenco's acclaimed Pixote, and received Best Actress awards at the Gramado Film Festival (Triple Award Winner) and at the Cartegena Film Festival for Carlos Diegues' Better Days Ahead. Other films include Bar Esperança, Angels of the Night and Diegues' Tieta do Agreste.