Get the latest gossip

How ‘Dìdi’ Director Sean Wang Created a Love Letter to the MySpace and AIM Era With His Deeply Personal Coming-of-Age Story


'Dìdi' director and writer Sean Wang revisits his teenage years in Fremont, California in the indie breakout feature.

It’s captivating, but it also feels a little like spying as you watch Chris during his last month of summer break, harassing his college-bound sister at the dinner table, botching his first kiss, and exchanging one set of friends for a group of older skaters who want the camera-wielding kid to make videos of their ollies. “Not all of it happened, but all of it is true,” he says, borrowing a line from Greta Gerwig, whose film “Lady Bird,” loosely inspired by her youth in Sacramento, would make an ideal double feature with “Dìdi.” For example, though Chris shares a surname with the director, he isn’t a carbon copy of his creator. Wang flew back to Sundance to find that “Didi” had landed a distribution deal with Focus Features, the indie studio behind “The Holdovers” and “Belfast.” He stayed there to see his movie win not only the Audience Award, but also a prize for its ensemble cast.

Get the Android app

Or read this on Variety

Read more on:

Photo of sean wang

sean wang

Related news:

News photo

Rising Filmmaker Sean Wang On Upcoming ‘Dìdi’ And Oscar-Nominated, Grandma-Powered ‘Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó’

News photo

‘Năi Nai & Wài Pó’ Director Sean Wang Wants His Love Letter To His Feisty Grandmas To Also Remind Us Of Hate Crimes Against Asians – Contenders Film: The Nominees