[ad_1]
“I feel like I’m in a fairy tale,” Shawn Wang told the crowd gathered at the Ray Theater in Park City, Utah, for his Sundance Film Festival debut last month.
Mr Wang, the 29-year-old filmmaker, was wearing a black suit and white Vans (a nod to his skateboarding roots). He held his chest to show how fast his heart was beating when he introduced his film “Didi”. It is a coming-of-age story about a troubled, insecure 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy trying to find his place in the world.
“It’ll just take me a few seconds to take it all in,” he said before turning to the audience for a photo. The warm crowd included Mr. Wang’s family and friends, the film’s cast and crew, and some potential buyers who have the power to transform him from an aspiring filmmaker to a real Hollywood director in his lifetime.
This has happened before also. Veterans like Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Damien Chazelle, Ava DuVernay, and Lulu Wang transformed from optimistic dreamers to actual filmmakers thanks to the Sundance Film Festival, which recently celebrated its 40th year.
Mr. Wang is familiar with that pedigree and, it seems, has been preparing for his Sundance moment ever since he discovered Spike Jonze’s skater videos as a teen before going to film school at the University of Southern California . While working for Google Creative Lab, he created a series of short films that showed different aspects of his childhood.
He also participated in several Sundance programs, including one for filmmakers ages 18 to 25, a Screenwriter’s Lab, and a Director’s Lab. Each helped him refine his script, a personal film that honors his relationship with his mother and “Stand by Me” and “Eighth Grade” through the lens of a first-generation American who grew up in a cultural mix. ” reimagines teen movies like It was Fremont, California in 2008. (Didi is Mandarin for younger brother and is a term of endearment in Chinese culture.)
Now, after six years of hard work on his script and completing the film, Mr. Wang is taking his first step into the spotlight thanks to Sundance. The moment coincided with the promotion of her short film, “Nai Nai and Wai Po”, about her two grandmothers. That film was recently nominated for an Oscar in the documentary short category and will soon be available on Disney+.
“It’s almost too much to fully process,” he said in an interview. “It’s really exciting, really surreal, definitely nerve-wracking, but overall I feel good.”
Mr Wang has already overcome some unexpected obstacles. His film was selected from over 4,000 entries. And it landed in Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Competition, a category that has spawned several Oscar contenders, including “CODA” and “Minari.”
However, before a film can become an awards-season contender – or even a film that general moviegoers can watch – it needs to find a buyer. And that’s what Mr. Wang was hoping for at Sundance.
At a panel of first-time filmmakers, Mr Wang applauded other newcomers for unveiling their films. Instead of talking business, directors kept their focus on how they hoped audiences would respond and how they made their films, leaving many of them surprised that it happened at all.
When Mr. Wang was asked about the people who stood by him during the filmmaking process, he said, “I would get emotional if I talked too much.” “I’m trying not to cry more than 10 times this festival.”
Yet behind all that gratitude was a low-grade concern: Would audiences and critics like the film, and would it be good enough for buyers to stock up and make plans to distribute it?
Before filming began, Mr. Wang and his producers confined themselves to a makeshift green room. “Didi” stars a handful of first-time actors as well, including Izaak Wang (“Good Boys”), who plays Didi, and Joan Chen (“The Last Emperor”), who plays her mother. Experienced veterans are included. The team decided not to screen the film for any buyers ahead of time.
Producer Carlos López Estrada said, “We really wanted to honor the experience and let the film speak for itself.”
It was a decision that both increased the pressure at the time and somehow preserved the spirit of the film that Mr. Wang was desperate to preserve.
He said, “This film needs to feel community-driven, like it’s coming from the ground up, not coming from Hollywood to my hometown.” “We did it successfully. My grandmother could be in a movie with this evergreen actress, and it all feels like the same world because we have it at home.
The reception at the film’s conclusion was overwhelming. The crowd gave the film an enthusiastic standing ovation, and Mr. Wang once again wiped away tears as he soaked it all in.
Michelle Satter, founding director of the Sundance Institute, was part of the crowd cheering on their rising filmmaker, as they were alongside notable directors like Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther”) and Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”). , who came from Sundance. For Oscar. Mr. Wang attended his directors’ lab just weeks before production on “DD,” using the mountainous surroundings in Utah to test two of his most complex scenes.
“Sean will have an incredible career and we have full confidence in him,” Ms. Satter said before Mr. Wang took her to meet his family.
“Thank you for supporting Sean,” Mr. Wang’s mother, Cynthia Lee, told Ms. Sater tearfully. “As a mother, I appreciate you.”
As soon as the film production team arrived at the after party, reviews started pouring in. The Hollywood Reporter called “DD” “poignant”, while Variety considered it “fresh and funny”. IndieWire wrote that it “created a sense of time, place, and texture that sets this fun, fleeting film apart from the old-fashioned film pack at the Sundance Festival.”
The party was a lavish affair filled with Asian cuisine from caterer Mama’s Night Market. The band HelloGoodbye, which performs in the film, played at the party, and Mr. Wang’s childhood bedroom, which was used in the film, was recreated in the lobby of the venue. The place was packed and guests were being turned away. Mr Wang was surrounded by fans and excited colleagues. Outside Park City, he is still unknown. But inside that room that night, he was a superstar.
Tom Quinn, chief executive of distributor Neon, said, “The discoveries at Sundance this year look like some of the most exciting discoveries of filmmakers and films of the last 20 years.” “Didi” fits him. “This marks the beginning of this incredible new filmmaker.”
Mr Wang’s Oscar nomination for a documentary about his grandmothers added to the excitement. He flew back from Utah to watch the nomination announcement early in the morning with his family at his childhood home. When “Nai Nai and Wai Po” was announced as the final nominee in the short film category, Mr. Wang buried his head in his grandmother’s lap and then collapsed on the floor.
He later said in an interview, “I’ll never get used to it.”
“Didi” ultimately won the prestigious Sundance Audience Award, an award that had gone to films like “CODA” and “Whiplash” in previous years.
On Wednesday, Mr Wang was back at his apartment in Los Angeles. The sun was shining and he was sporting a fresh haircut when Focus Features announced the purchase of worldwide rights to “DD,” which it would release in theaters this summer, perhaps as an antidote to the blockbusters that typically But at that time theaters were eaten up.
It was the end of a whirlwind adventure that many aspiring filmmakers can only dream about.
“There was something about living in Park City where everything that was happening to me didn’t seem real,” Mr Wang said. “You’re in this icy place, and multiple places required my attention every single second of every single day. Coming back and then the news, it’s like, ‘Oh, wow, we actually did that.'”
produced by audio tally abacus,
