Focus Features picked up director Sean Wang’s feature debut Didi after a successful run at the Sundance Film Festival. Based on Wang’s life, Didi was praised for its unique characterization and universal themes.

The coming-of-age drama follows a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy as he tries to enjoy the last month of summer before he starts high school. From family squabbles to befriending skaters, the young protagonist will experience the peaks and pitfalls of transitioning into teenage life.

Wang intended for the film to reflect not only his own experiences as a Taiwanese American but also other’s experiences. According to the director, Didi is meant to be “ a coming-of-age story set in a place [he] know[s], starring people who look like those [he] knew, during a time when we are the worst versions of ourselves having the best time of our lives.” Wang’s dream for this film was that it could connect with its audiences, and he was glad that the film “resonate[d] with so many others since our premiere at Sundance.”

Focus Features president of productions and acquisitions, Kiska Higgs, expressed her excitement for the studio’s purchase, claiming that everyone in Focus Features saw themselves in Wang’s story. She shares Wang’s hope that Focus Features will share his “brilliant vision of a Californian misfit with audiences everywhere, who will also fall in love with 13-year-old Wang-Wang as he stumbles his way into high school.”

The film earned immense praise at Sundance, with some critics comparing it favorably to other similar coming-of-age films. Peter Debruge, for instance, compared it to a mix of “Bing Liu’s Minding the Gap and Jonah Hill’s mid90s.” To Debruge, Didi’s appeal comes from “the balance between the universal and the unique in Wang’s experience.”

Didi stars Izaac Wang as the young hero, and The Last Emperor’s Joan Chen plays his strict mother.

There is no current wide release date, though filmgoers certainly have much to look forward to with this unique perspective on adolescence.