Editor’s note: On Saturday, Walter Salles will be bestowed a Luminary Award at the Academy Museum Gala Tribute, along with Penélope Cruz, Bruce Springsteen and Bowen Yang. Multiple Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu wanted to say a few things about his friend Salles, the storied director of Central Station and most recently I’m Still Here .

Walter Salles couldn’t understand how a raw piece of wood could become a giraffe or an elephant. Especially since the hands sculpting that wood belonged to the Polish artist Frans Krajcberg — a man who had arrived to Brazil without ever having had any contact with those animals. Surprised by the question, Krajcberg replied, “Well, I take the wood, and everything that is not the elephant, I remove.”

Walter learned this lesson well in 19

See Full Page