Sean Wang’s “Dìdi”,” recently acquired by Focus Features, will be getting a much-deserved theatrical release on July 26. I watched around 20 films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and “Dìdi” was only one of a handful of films I’d consider to be above average. A trailer has been released and gives us a good glimpse of the sweet nature that this film possesses.
“Dìdi” took home the coveted Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic category and a special Jury Award for Best Ensemble. This was another worthy winner, and one of the better films of this year’s competition, a brief shout out to “Between the Temples” and “Good One” as well.
Set in 2008, during the last month of summer, before high school begins, “Dìdi” tackles an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy who learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to navigate the most turbulent time in a boy’s life.
It’s a sweet, real and incredibly resonant film — think Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade.” If you loved that one then you’ll be taken by “Dìdi.” It’s not a gamechanger by any means, but it’s the kind of discovery that makes Sundance such an essential festival.
Netflix and Skydance Animation have also called it quits. The two sides announced Monday that they're ending the animated film deal struck back in 2023, framing it as a mutual decision.