Brazilian filmmaker João Pedro Oliveira wins Best Director at Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival

João Pedro Oliveira, a 1999‑born actor from Vila Isabel in Rio de Janeiro, grew up in a favela and later worked as a banking apprentice before turning to acting. He gained national attention playing Serginho in the TV series *Malhação: Toda Forma de Amar* and then moved behind the camera.

Oliveira wrote and directed the short film *No Fim do Déjà‑Vu*, which follows a Black plastic artist who abandons crime to support his son and confronts spiritual themes. The film premiered in New York and earned him the Best Director award at the Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival, marking his first international accolade. He says his work seeks to break stereotypical portrayals of Black characters in Brazilian audiovisual media and to present new narratives that reflect the diversity of Rio’s neighbourhoods.

Oliveira continues his studies in aesthetics and theatre while promoting a cinema that can reshape cultural perceptions both in Brazil and abroad.