Advisor Studio: Edson Oda (NINE DAYS) on Making Your First Feature
About this Advisor Studio
In Advisor Studio sessions, Sundance Collab Advisors share field experiences and insights into their specific areas of craft, including writing, directing and producing for TV and film.
The process of making your first feature film is at once daunting and rewarding, challenging and exciting and always intense. In this intimate conversation, writer/director Edson Oda (MALARIA, A SENSORIAL RIDE, NINE DAYS) recounts his leap into feature filmmaking after making several well-received short films. Oda debuted his fiction feature, NINE DAYS, at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it garnered critical acclaim, won the Waldo Salt Award for Screenwriting, and was acquired for release by Sony Pictures Classic. Here, Oda shares how to develop and execute an ambitious idea, tackle challenges during production, and why he believes personal storytelling is key to creating an impactful film. We’ll begin by screening his short, MALARIA, to set the stage for the conversation.
Artist's Chosen Interviews:
Artist's Chosen Resources:
- Latin Dance Events
- Master Classes
- All types of Interviews, Q&As, movies and movie clips on YouTube
- USC Doheny Library
- USC Leavey Library
- Anything related to basketball and Basketball Talkshows:
- Podcasts
Advisor StudioTeam
Edson Shundi Oda
Advisor
Edson Oda is a Japanese-Brazilian writer/director based in Los Angeles. He graduated from the University of São Paulo - bachelor's in Advertising – and completed his MFA in Film and Production at USC.
His first feature film NINE DAYS - staring Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Bill Skarsgard and Tony Hale - premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2020 (U.S. Dramatic Competition), winning the Walt Salt Screenwriting Award.
Oda also wrote, directed and supervised projects for Philips, Telefonica, Movistar, InBev, Whirlpool, Johnson & Johnson, Honda.
He’s a Sundance Screenwriters Lab Alumni and Latin Grammy nominated director for best music video.