201 - How Sundance-Award Winner “Dìdi” Became a Reality

Academy Award®-nominated director (“Raya and the Last Dragon”) — and Dolby Institute Fellowship winner — Carlos López Estrada brings together another exciting panel of film professionals. As one of the producers, Carlos joins fellow Academy Award®-nominated director (“Nai Nai & Wài Pó”) Sean Wang, along with members of the cast and crew, to discuss the herculean task of bringing their independent film “Dìdi (弟弟)” to life.

“It’s such a difficult thing to make your first personal film. It’s so impossibly difficult. And I think you really need to know that’s what you want to do. And if, in the depths of the night, you ask yourself, ‘is this what I must do?’ And if the answer comes out to be yes… then I think you adjust everything in your life in accordance with that goal. It’s just something you must do. If you get enough money, you make it bigger. If you don’t get enough money, you still make it. You make it a little more intimate. I think it’s just that necessity… to tell this story… We make narratives, essentially, to save ourselves.”

—Joan Chen, Actor, “Dìdi (弟弟)”

Today’s panel also includes:

- Sean Wang - Director, Writer, Producer

- Izaac Wang - Actor (“Chris Wang”)

- Joan Chen - Actor (“Chungsing Wang”)

- Valerie Bush - Producer

- Sam Davis - Director of Photography

and Moderator

- Carlos López Estrada - Producer

“Dìdi (弟弟)” was a recipient of the Dolby Institute Fellowship Award, our grant program for exceptional independent films to finish in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®. And we couldn’t be more proud of this film, even before it went on to win the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Be sure to check out “Dìdi (弟弟)” in theaters this Friday, July 26!

Wide release on August 16th.

This discussion was another edition of Antigravity Academy’s Satellite Sessions — free monthly conversations with high-level individuals in film and tv, whose objective is to decentralize resources/information and make them available to as many up-and-coming filmmakers as possible — co-presented by CAPE USA (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment).

Learn more about Antigravity Academy:

https://antigravityacademy.co/

Learn more about CAPE — The Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment:

https://www.capeusa.org/

Be sure to follow @antigravityacademy and @capeusa for more information on even more upcoming panels.

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