7 things to know about indie award-winning movie Dìdi

Dìdi is set in 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, when an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can't teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom.

Writer, director and producer Sean Wang, who based the movie strongly on his own experiences as a first-generation American and the youngest son of Taiwanese immigrants, says, "Dìdi is everything I want to say now about everything I experienced then. It is an ode to the joy and chaos of adolescence, it is a thank you, I’m sorry, and I love you to the immigrant mothers that raise us, and it is an examination of how it feels to learn to love yourself during a time when the world says you are unworthy of it. But more than anything, it is the movie I know my younger self would have loved to see: a coming-of-age movie set in a place I know, starring people who look like those I knew, during a moment when we are the worst versions of ourselves having the best time of our lives."

Izaac Wang stars as "Chris Wang" in writer/director Sean Wang's DÌDI, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features / Talking Fish Pictures, LLC. © 2024 All Rights Reserved.

Dìdi won 21 awards internationally, including Independent Spirit prizes for Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay for Sean Wang, as well as the US Dramatic Audience Award and Special Jury award for its ensemble cast at Sundance. Izaac Wang, who plays the lead character, known as Wang-Wang, was up for the 2025 Critics' Choice Award for Best Young Actor/Actress.

7 fun behind-the-scenes details to look out for in Dìdi

1. The majority of the young cast made their on-screen debut in Dìdi. Many of them are local to the Bay Area and were discovered in street casting sessions or in school theatre programmes.

(L to R): Izaac Wang as "Chris Wang", Aaron Chang as "Soup", Tarnvir Kamboj as "Hardeep", and Raul Dial as "Fahad" in writer/director Sean Wang's DÌDI, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features / Talking Fish Pictures, LLC. © 2024 All Rights Reserved.

2. Sean Wang's real grandmother, Chang Li Hua, plays the role of Wang-Wang's grandma in the movie. She is also the star of his recently Academy Award-shortlisted short film NǍI NAI AND WÀI PÓ.

(L to R) Izaac Wang as "Chris Wang", Chang Li Hua as "Nai Nai", Joan Chen as "Chungsing Wang", and Shirley Chen as "Vivian Wang" in writer/director Sean Wang's DÌDI, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features / Talking Fish Pictures, LLC. © 2024 All Rights Reserved.

3. The paintings that Wang-Wang's mom paints in the movie were actually painted by Sean's mom, Cynthia Lee.

4. Wang-Wang's bedroom in the movie is Sean's actual childhood bedroom in Fremont. Wang-Wang’s sister’s bedroom was also filmed in Sean’s childhood room.

5. The end credits of the movie feature the original track "Stop Talking" from the 2000s pop-punk band Motion City Soundtrack. Until this track, they had not released new music in over 10 years.

6. All the kids in the movie had to learn how to text using T9 texting on older phones. They were not very good at it.

7. There are a few voice cameos in the movie: Academy Award-nominated actor Stephanie Hsu (EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE) plays a YouTube Tutorial Host, teaching Wang-Wang how to kiss, and Taiwanese-American stand-up comedian Sheng Wang plays the voice of a loud-mouthed dead fish.

Watch the trailer for Dìdi

Stream Dìdi on Showmax now.