Anselmo Duarte was a Brazilianactor, screenwriter and film director. His film O Pagador de Promessas won the Golden Palm at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival, becoming, to date, the only Brazilian feature film to be so distinguished and the first Cannes' Southern Hemisphere Golden Palm for best feature film. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 1962 "O Pagador de Promessas" was also awarded best film and best musical score at the San Francisco international film festival and best film at the Acapulco, Cartagena, Karlovy Vary and Edinburgh international film festivals. His 1964 film ¨Vereda da Salvação" - The Obsessed of Catule was entered into the 15th Berlin International Film Festival. He also was a freemason. The President of Brazil, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, awarded Duarte the Order of The Cultural Merit, Brazil's highest cultural civilian honor, and the Governor of São Paulo, José Serra, awarded Duarte the Order of Ipiranga, which is the state's highest civilian honor. Duarte was awarded titles of merit citizenship by numerous Brazilian municipalities including Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Salto, his birthplace. In 2009, the municipality of Salto inaugurated a multimillion-dollar cultural and educational center named "Centro Cultural e Educacional Anselmo Duarte", housing a 500 audience amphitheater for film and theatrical events. The center also displays for public view the original "Golden Palm" awarded to Duarte at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. In 2008, at 88, Duarte founded a cultural organization dedicated to restoring selected Brazilian films and creating special, free of charge, educational projects aimed at young filmmakers to improve their technical filmmaking skills. After his death, his son, Ricardo Duarte, 69, became the institute's president. Upon being diagnosed by suffering Alzheimer's dementia in 2002, Duarte spent his last 7 years of life under the care of his son, Ricardo, and his grandchild, Daphne, a preeminent Brazilian artist. Anselmo had 4 children. Reaching stage 6 on his Alzheimer illness condition a bladder cancer was detected which led to a severe blood hemorrhage, precipitating a heart stroke. Although both the bladder cancer and heart conditions had been successfully treated, a sudden massive hemorrhagic brain stroke left the legendary Brazilian actor and filmmaker in a coma for 6 days. Duarte died on November 7, 2009, due to complications from a stroke.
