Key Highlights
- Feeling compelled to channel his decades-long hurt and anger stemming from experiencing racial microaggressions in his home country due to his Japanese ancestry, Saito made his latest short film, Amarela, a term that means “yellow” in Portuguese.
- Set against the backdrop of the 1998 São Paulo World Cup between Brazil and France, Amarela follows 14-year-old Erika Oguihara (Melissa Uehara), a Japanese Brazilian sports fanatic who rebels against her family’s more Japanese cultural traditions.
- When Erika desires to celebrate with other fans in the city, tensions build during the match, and Erika becomes a target for misplaced hatred when the game takes a turn for the worse.
- Watch on Deadline In addition to landing the 2026 Oscars shortlist, the 15-minute film also got nominations from the Cannes Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Palm Springs International Short Fest and TIFF.
- It also won the Canal Brazil Award for Short Films at the São Paulo International Short Film Festival.
