Brazil’s Carnival muse this year isn’t one of the divas or drum queens parading with the Rio de Janeiro samba schools.

The best international feature Academy Award for Walter Salles’ timely drama backdropped the annual celebrations and validated a political movement: “It’s hard to put into words just how big of a moment this is.

Rio de Janeiro's massive Sambadrome erupted in noisy celebrations Sunday as the news broke that Brazil won its first Oscar, in the middle of the first day of its famous samba parades. At Rio's Sambadrome,