Turning Red director Domee Shi to be nominated for an Oscar for her personal story and what this recognition means for the Asian community

When Domee Shi heard this Blush was nominated today, she said she was hit with a “crazy mix of emotions”.

“I’m mostly over the moon and excited, but still a little shocked,” she told Deadline. “To be honest with all the crazy crap that’s going on in California with filming, I’m still trying to process it, but also this great news that our film was nominated and what it means to the Asian community and what it means to me for this film, which is so personal, to be recognized by such a global audience.

Based on Shi’s own childhood, the film follows a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl as she enters puberty. “I hope this film can help all children and young adults dealing with the chaos of puberty and growing up and fighting with their mothers heal, make them laugh and help them deal with the crazy emotions.” understand and deal with it. in them.”

Although the film is about a Chinese-Canadian family, Shi was happy that the film appealed to a much wider audience. “I think the most iconic aspect of this film is the feeling we all had when we wake up one day and don’t recognize our bodies,” she says. “Like we suddenly shot up a few feet and a bunch of hair grew all over our body. We are hungry all the time, we are horny, we are angry with our parents… I think this phenomenon resonated with everyone.”

BOUND TOGETHER: 2023 Oscar nominations: complete coverage by Deadline

The most important thing for Shi was to start a conversation about how people of different cultures and generations process their emotions. “It was a wonderful experience to have viewers from the Asian community and other immigrant communities come out and thank us for making this film and allowing us to start these conversations,” she says. “Not only with their kids going through puberty, but also with their parents… There are a lot of issues and ideas that you don’t really talk about, especially in the Asian and immigrant communities.”

Shi is currently developing another film at Pixar, but could not divulge any details. “All I can really say about it is that it suits me completely and will be very inspired by my background, my culture and the themes and ideas that I like to talk about… I think movies like ours and Everything, everywhere, all at onceIt’s just really cool and really important to see more of these stories in the media.