Young filmmaker experiences his 'fairy tale' at Sundance

“I feel like I'm in a fairytale,” Sean Wang told the sold-out audience gathered at the Ray Theater in Park City, Utah, for his Sundance Film Festival debut last month.

Mr. Wang, a 29-year-old filmmaker, was dressed in a black suit and white Vans (a nod to his skateboarding roots). He grabbed his chest to show how fast his heart was beating as he introduced his film 'Didi'. It's a coming-of-age story about an anxious, insecure 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy trying to find his place in the world.

“I'm just going to take a moment to take this all in,” he said before taking a photo of the crowd. The warm crowd included Mr. Wang's family and friends, the film's cast and crew, and a handful of potential buyers who have the power to transform his station in life from aspiring filmmaker to bona fide Hollywood director.

It's happened before. Celebrities like Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Damien Chazelle, Ava DuVernay and Lulu Wang all went from hopeful dreamers to real-life filmmakers, thanks in part to the Sundance Film Festival, which just concluded its 40th year.

Mr. Wang is familiar with that line, and it seems he's been preparing for his Sundance moment ever since he discovered Spike Jonze's. skater videos as a teenager before attending film school at the University of Southern California. While working occasionally for Google Creative Lab, he created a series short films that brought up different aspects of his childhood.

He also participated in multiple Sundance programs, including a program for filmmakers ages 18 to 25, a screenwriting lab and a director's lab. They all helped him hone his script, a personal film that both honors his relationship with his mother and reimagines teen films like “Stand By Me” and “Eighth Grade” through the lens of a first-generation American who grew up in the cultural melting pot that was Fremont, California, in 2007. (Didi is Mandarin for little brother and a term of endearment in Chinese culture.)

Now, after six years of working on his script and finishing the film, Mr. Wang is taking his first steps into the spotlight thanks to Sundance. The moment coincided with the promotion of his short film 'Nai Nai & Wài Pó', about his two grandmothers. That film was recently nominated for an Oscar in the short documentary 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 and definitely nerve-wracking, but overall I feel good.”

Mr. Wang has already overcome some unlikely odds. His film was chosen from more than 4,000 entries. And it landed in Sundance's American dramatic competition, a category that has spawned a slew of Oscar contenders, including “CODA” and “Minari.”

However, before a film can be an awards contender, or even a film that general moviegoers can watch, it must find a buyer. And that's what Mr. Wang was hoping for at Sundance.

During a panel with aspiring filmmakers, Mr. Wang commiserated with other newcomers who were about to unveil their films. Instead of talking about business, the directors focused on how they hoped audiences would respond and how they got their films made. Many of them were baffled that it happened at all.

“I get emotional when I talk too much,” Mr. Wang said when asked about the people who were by his side during the filmmaking process. “I try not to cry more than ten times at this festival.”

But underlying all that gratitude was a slight fear: Would audiences and critics like the film, and would that be enough for a buyer to pick it up and plan to distribute it?

Before the film's debut, Mr. Wang and his producers locked themselves in a makeshift green room. “Didi” features a handful of novice actors alongside more seasoned veterans like Izaac Wang (“Good Boys”), who plays Didi, and Joan Chen (“The Last Emperor”), who plays his mother. The team chose not to show the film to buyers in advance.

“We really want to honor this experience and let the film speak for itself,” said producer Carlos López Estrada.

It was a decision that both increased the pressure of the moment and somehow preserved the feeling of the film that Mr. Wang was so eager to protect.

“This film needs to feel community-driven, like it's coming from the ground up and not coming from Hollywood to my hometown,” he said. “We did it successfully. My grandmother could be in a movie with this timeless actress, and it all feels like the same world because we kept it at home.

The reception at the end of the film was raucous. The audience gave the film an enthusiastic standing ovation, and Mr. Wang again wiped away tears as he took it all in.

Michelle Satter, the founder and director of the Sundance Institute, was part of the crowd cheering on her budding filmmaker, just as she had notable directors, including Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther”) and Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”), who came over from Sundance. to the Oscars. Mr. Wang visited her director's laboratory just weeks before beginning production on “Didi,” using Utah's mountainous environment to test out his two most complicated scenes.

“Sean is going to have an incredible career, and we fully believe in him,” Ms. Satter said before Mr. Wang took her to meet his family.

“Thank you for supporting Sean,” Cynthia Lee, Mr. Wang's mother, said tearfully to Ms. Satter. “As a mother, I appreciate you.”

The reviews poured in as the film team headed to the afterparty. The Hollywood Reporter called “Didi” “moving,” while Variety found it “fresh and funny.” IndieWire wrote that it “evoked a sense of time, place and texture that sets the funny, volatile film apart from the Sundance Festival's coming-of-age film package.”

The party was a lavish affair filled with Asian dishes from caterer Mama's Night Market. The band Hellogoodbye, which performs in the film, played at the party, and Mr. Wang's nursery, used in the film, was recreated in the venue's lobby. The place was packed and guests were turned away. Mr. Wang was mobbed by adoring fans and excited colleagues. He is still unknown outside of Park City. But that night in that room he was a superstar.

“The discoveries happening at Sundance this year are very similar to some of the truly exciting discoveries made by filmmakers and films over the past two decades,” said Tom Quinn, CEO of distributor Neon. “'Didi' fits in with that. It heralds the dawn of this incredible new filmmaker.”

Adding to the excitement was Mr.'s Oscar nomination. Wang for his documentary about his grandmothers. He flew back from Utah to watch the early morning nominations announcement with his family in his parental home. When “Nai Nai & Wài Pó” was announced as the final nominee in the short film category, Mr. Wang buried his head in his grandmother's lap and then fell to the ground.

“I will never get used to this,” he said later in an interview.

“Didi” ultimately won the prestigious Sundance Audience Award, an award that in recent years has gone to films like “CODA” and “Whiplash.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Wang was back at his Los Angeles apartment. The sun was shining and he had a fresh haircut when Focus Features announced the purchase of worldwide rights to “Didi,” which it will likely release in theaters this summer, perhaps as an antidote to the blockbusters normally seen in theaters.

It was an end to a whirlwind adventure that many aspiring filmmakers can only dream of.

“There's something about being in Park City where all the things that were happening to me didn't feel real,” Mr. Wang said. “You're in a snow globe of a place, and my attention was needed in so many places, every second of every day. To be back and see the news, it feels like, 'Oh, wow, we really did that.'