EXCLUSIVE: We have your first look at Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó, the award-winning documentary directed by Sean Wang that just earned a place on the Oscar shortlist. The film will begin streaming next month on Disney+ and Hulu, relaunching a beloved Walt Disney documentary short film series – People & Places – that ran from the early 1950s into the 1960s.
Wang’s grandmothers Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó are the endearing stars of the short, which won the Grand Jury Prize and audience award at SXSW, as well as Grand Jury Awards at AFI Fest and SIFF 2023.
“This multigenerational story follows this grandma super team that dances, stretches and farts their sorrows away,” Disney noted in a release, adding that the relaunched People & Places “will feature a mix of up-and-coming and established filmmakers telling the real-life stories of extraordinary people and places from around the globe that embody the Disney ethos.”
The trailer above begins with the titular seniors engaging in a friendly contest of arm wrestling. One granny says with a smile, “I am currently 83 years old, but I feel like I’m 20.” The other, also smiling, comments, “I turned 94 this year. I feel like I’m 100 years old. I’m so old.”
Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó celebrate the film about them earning a place on the Oscar documentary short shortlist.
Courtesy of Even/Odd
Dialogue in the film is in Mandarin and English. Sean Wang directs and produces. The film is also produced by Sam Davis (Academy Award-winning short Period. End of Sentence.) and Emmy-nominee Malcolm Pullinger. Joyce N. Ho designed and animated the film title, subtitles, and end credits. On her website, she said of Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó, “Filmed in the pandemic, it introduces us to his grandmas’ endearing personalities (through a bit of hijink), and tells the story of their love for each other and of Sean – something so special – it made me want to hug my own grandparents and hold them close.”
The release notes Wang is currently in post-production on his feature film DìDi, “which is being produced by Disney alumni Carlos López Estrada and was selected for the 2023 Sundance Screenwriters Lab and Directors Lab.” Wang was also selected to be part of the Project Advancement and Completion Fund, a collaboration between the Sundance Institute and The Walt Disney Company.
The majority of the original films in the original People & Places series were directed by Ben Sharpsteen and took viewers to distant locales, from Lapland to Portugal, Sardinia, Japan, Siam (the former name of Thailand), the Arctic, and Antarctica.
Watch the trailer for Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó above.