Exclusive: Director Edson Oda and Benedict Wong talk Nine Days

Hitting select theaters today and going nationwide on August 6 from Sony Pictures Classics is Nine Days, written and directed by Edson Oda, the celebrated commercials director who is making his feature debut.

The film stars Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, David Rysdahl , Arianna Ortiz, Tony Hale, Bill Skarsgård, Perry Smith, and Geraldine Hughes.

Will (Winston Duke) spends his days in a remote outpost watching the live Point of View (POV) on TV’s of people going about their lives, until one subject perishes, leaving a vacancy for a new life on earth. Soon, several candidates — unborn souls — arrive at Will's to undergo tests determining their fitness, facing oblivion when they are deemed unsuitable.

But Will soon faces his own existential challenge in the form of free-spirited Emma (Zazie Beetz), a candidate who is not like the others, forcing him to turn within and reckon with his own tumultuous past. Fueled by unexpected power, he discovers a bold new path forward in his own life. Making his feature-film debut after a series of highly acclaimed and award-winning short films and musicvideos, Japanese Brazilian director Edson Oda delivers a heartfelt and meditative vision of human souls in limbo, aching to be born against unimaginable odds, yet hindered by forces beyond their will...

For Oda, who won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival for Nine Days, it’s been a journey to get his first feature off the ground. He’s been directing short films, music videos and commercials. Wong was last seen voicing a character in Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon. He will next be seen reprising his role as Wong in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. BlackFilmandTV.com’s Wilson Morales recently spoke with Oda and Wong on their experiences working on the film.