
Yaiza
Based on a Short Story by
Brenda Peynado
Directed by
Esra Saydam
Drama + Young Adult + Sports
An endearing, honest story about a rivalry between two tennis-playing girls - one privileged and one not.
Angelina Capozzoli
Sara
Stephani Sosa
Yaiza
Jenny L. Saldaña
Mom
1.4:Â The Match
5 Min Read, 7:01 Min Listen
1.5:Â Naw Tennis
1 Min Read, 2:22 Min Listen

Brenda Peynado
BRENDA PEYNADO is a Dominican American writer of fiction, nonfiction, and screenplays. Her writing style ranges from lyric essays, magical realism, fabulism, science fiction, fantasy, surrealism, to some perfectly realistic exaggerations thrown in the mix. Her short story collection, THE ROCK EATERS, was released by Penguin Books in March 2021 to critical acclaim. Her work appears in Tor.com, The Georgia Review, The Sun, Threepenny Review, Epoch, Kenyon Review online, Pleiades, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. Her stories have won a Nelson Algren Award from the Chicago Tribune, an O. Henry Prize, a Pushcart Prize; inclusion in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Best Small Fiction, and Best Microfiction anthologies, two Vermont Studio Center Fellowships, and other awards.Currently, she teaches fiction and screenwriting at the University of Central Florida’s BA and MFA programs. www.brendapeynado.com
Esra Saydam
ESRA SAYDAM is an Istanbul-born director with a master’s degree in Columbia University Graduate Film Program. Her first feature film, ACROSS THE SEA won multiple awards at Adana FF as well at other international festivals like Slamdance and Milano Int. The film also screened at festivals, Florida, Raindance, Istanbul and Warsaw. She also produced the short film A PERIOD PIECE which recently premiered at SXSW. Esra is the recipient of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Fellowship and an active member of Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, Film Fatales and Brown Girls Doc Mafia.www.sandsnowfilms.com