This year’s visiting filmmaker for the 10th Annual Harlan J. Strauss Visiting Filmmaker Series is director Sean Wang, an Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker from the Bay Area. Wang is participating in two events: a screening of his independent film, Dìdi (弟弟), followed by a Q&A session open to the public on Thursday, April 24, and a masterclass on directing on Friday, April 25, for students.  

Every year the Department of Cinema Studies, through the Strauss Visiting Filmmaker Endowment, invites a filmmaker to visit Eugene and serve as a visiting professor of filmmaking. The endowment, made available through the generosity of Harlan (PhD ’74) and Rima Strauss, is an experiential learning opportunity for students, providing them with insights and empowering them to see themselves in the role of filmmaker. 

“I believe that the best of our students come out of the department with the same abilities and skills available from top film schools in the country. But the Willamette Valley is not Los Angeles or New York, and so the Strauss endowment allows us to bring both veteran and up-and-coming directors and producers here to us, our students and the wider community,” said Michael Aronson, associate professor in cinema studies. “For our students, engaging with these filmmakers in coursework, workshops, public screenings and small group conversations has already proven itself to be truly transformative, and we’re looking forward to having Sean Wang here to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of this gift and its impact.” 

While the screening with Q&A is open to the public, the masterclass is only open to students at UO, with priority going to students studying cinema studies. Wang will share his creative process for developing and directing scenes from his independent feature DÌDI, including ideas and techniques for casting, blocking and working collaboratively on set with both talent and crew.  

“Coming of age movies are nothing new, but Wang’s feature debut is striking for its honest portrayal of the too often misery as well as fleeting glimpses of joy to be found in the netherworld between middle and high school. His abilities to cast and direct his charming grandmother alongside a consummate global star such as Joan Chen simultaneously shows an assurance and willingness to take chances that all great filmmakers seem to inhabit,” said Aronson. 

Wang began his career developing and directing commercials at Google Creative Lab. Since then, his work has screened at globally renowned film festivals including Sundance, SXSW and TIFF. He is a former Sundance Ignite and TAAF fellow, and 2023 Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab Fellow. In 2024, he was named a BAFTA Breakthrough Artist and received the Sundance Vanguard Award for Fiction. 

Wang's feature directorial debut, Dìdi (弟弟), premiered in the US Dramatic Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival where it won the US Dramatic Audience Award, Special Jury Prize for Best Ensemble Cast, and was acquired by Focus Features for a global theatrical release. Wang was nominated by the Director’s Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film and the film was named a New York Times Critic’s Pick, nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards, winning two for Best First Screenplay and Best First Feature. It was also named one of the top 10 independent films of 2024 by the National Board of Review.  

His short film, Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó (Grandma & Grandma), premiered at SXSW 2023 where it won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award and was acquired by Disney+. It went on to screen at dozens of film festivals worldwide, earning top honors at AFI Fest and SIFF, and was nominated for Best Documentary Short Film at the 96th Academy Awards. 

The Harlan J. Strauss Visiting Filmmaker Series offers Cinema Studies students a unique and potentially transformative opportunity to engage with highly successful practicing filmmakers as well as help raise the visibility of cinema studies on campus and around the country. 

Past visiting filmmakers include Oscar-winning Director Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland,” Marvel Studios’ “Eternals”); director of Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program, Adam Piron; Producer Carter Swan (“The Last of Us,” "Gran Turismo,” “Unchartered”), Producer Keith Goldberg (“17 Again,” “The Umbrella Academy”), Producer Mollye Asher (“Nomadland”), and many more award-winning guest filmmakers. 

For more information about both events, please visit cinema.uoregon.edu.  

—By Jenny Brooks, College of Arts and Sciences