The film's star, Fernando Ramos da Silva, who plays a young street criminal, actually was a street criminal before he made this film. After completing it, he took up the criminal life again, and was killed in Brazil in 1987 in an alleged shootout with police. While police reports claim that da Silva was resisting arrest, there are conflicting reports from eyewitnesses, who claim da Silva was unarmed.
Furthermore, a forensic examination showed that he had been shot while lying on the ground. Both his wife and mother called the shooting "a police execution." The story of Fernando Ramos da Silva is depicted in the biographical film Quem Matou Pixote? (1996).
According to one of the casting directors, after auditioning more than 3000 kids for the main role, Fernando Ramos da Silva was selected to the final competition with another child actor, a more experienced kid who already had some TV commercials on his resume. Fernando, a non-professional actor who had brief acting lessons prior to the film, was the one chosen by director Hector Babenco due to his expressive, sad eyes that seemed to reflect a "bad angel."
According to a family member of Fernando, he never managed to watch the finished film, always watching some bits but never totally.
The very first Brazilian film to receive a Golden Globe nomination.
The scene where Pixote kisses the prostitute played by Marília Pêra was an improvisation created by the actress without Hector Babenco knowing it. Pêra said to Fernando Ramos da Silva (Pixote) that during rehearsals she would say 'marshmellow' and then nothing would happen between them but during shooting when she speaks the word, Ramos would have to kiss her instantly. Ramos did it and when a surprised Babenco said cut, he was deeply impressed by the child's improvisation. Pêra tells this story in the documentary Pixote, in memoriam (2007).