Experiencing Interruptions?

Naiá

Naiá is a short film inspired by the legend of the Vitória-Régia (the Amazon water lily), an Indigenous myth from Northern Brazil rooted in Tupi-Guarani tradition.

A young Indigenous woman falls in love with the Moon and longs to be chosen to live by its side. As her devotion turns into obsession, her pursuit becomes dangerous—risking her life and forever transforming the forest and the fate of her village.

Created entirely with artificial intelligence tools, Naiá blends ancestral mythology with a contemporary digital imagination.

  • Anderson Freitas
    Director
  • Anderson Freitas
    Writer
  • Anderson Freitas
    Producer
  • Anderson Freitas
    AI Crafting
  • Anderson Freitas
    Editing
  • Anderson Freitas
    Color grading
  • Anderson Freitas
    Sound design
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Fantasy, Adventure
  • Runtime:
    6 minutes 15 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 15, 2026
  • Production Budget:
    200 BRL
  • Country of Origin:
    Brazil
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • AI Creative Festival AICF by HUMAN
    São Paulo
    Brazil
    December 2, 2025
    Sound Design Selected Finalist
  • WAIFF International Festival of Cinema and Artificial Inteligence
    São Paulo
    Brazil
    February 28, 2026
    Short Film Finalist
  • AI International Film Festival
    Los Angeles
    United States
    May 9, 2026
    Winner for Best Sound Design and Best International Short Film
Director Biography - Anderson Freitas

Anderson is a Director, Post Producer, and AI Artist with over 10 years of experience in audiovisual production. Since beginning his career in 2015, he has directed more than 24 projects, including music videos, video art pieces, short films, and mini-documentaries.

His early work emerged from the independent music scene, capturing live concerts and underground culture, which shaped his dynamic and visually driven storytelling style. Throughout his career, he has worked across multiple disciplines, including directing, cinematography, sound recording, editing, sound design, and color grading.

In parallel, Anderson has served as a post producer for numerous corporate and commercial films for major brands, combining technical precision with creative direction.

Over the past two years, he has incorporated AI-driven workflows into his productions, establishing artificial intelligence as one of his primary creative tools and areas of expertise.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

With Naiá, I set out to explore the expressive limits of artificial intelligence in cinema. I wanted to test whether AI could sustain a realistic cinematic language while following a strict, human-crafted decoupage — not as a shortcut, but as a creative tool guided by intention and authorship.

At the same time, I felt the need to tell a story that reconnects me to my country of origin. I wanted to center a non-white, non-male protagonist, embracing representation not as a trend, but as a responsibility. Revisiting the legend of the Amazon Water Lily — a story I first heard as a child — felt like returning to something ancestral and intimate.

Naiá is an invitation into the culture of Brazil’s Indigenous peoples — their presence, their worldview, their relationship with nature and the cosmos. Beneath the myth lies a reflection on longing: the deep, sometimes unexplainable desires of the soul, and the fragile line between devotion and self-destruction.

Through this film, I sought to merge ancient storytelling with contemporary tools, creating a space where technology and ancestry coexist — where the forest breathes, and desire transforms reality.