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Ever since “Nine Days” filmmaker Edson Oda won the Sundance Film Festival’s Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in January 2020, the prize has been a great boost of confidence whenever a little imposter syndrome kicks in.

“I keep it on another table so I can see it,” Edson tells Variety over Zoom, pointing at the trophy, which is just off camera. “When I’m writing, and I feel like, ‘Oh, this page sucks,’ I can just look at it and, at least, I have some recognition for writing that keeps me motivated to keep going.”

It makes sense that the budding filmmaker is using every talisman he can get, especially since the last 18 months have been a major test of confidence and patience. Sony Pictures Classics held onto “Nine Days” for more than a year due to the pandemic, waiting until audiences could experience the movie in its full theatrical wonder. The movie debuted July 31, making a strong showing and earning $18,455 opening weekend from just four theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The film expanded nationwide on Aug. 6, adding more than $235,000 to its box office total.

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It’s been a long — and emotional — journey for the Japanese Brazilian filmmaker, and not just because of the pandemic. “I sometimes just go back to when I just moved to the U.S., and I was just starting film school,” he says looking back on the last few years. “For me, releasing a movie nationwide was such a super distant reality.”

“Nine Days” is a very personal project, inspired by the suicide of Oda’s uncle when the writer and director was just 12 years old. The tragedy was deeply affecting for Oda’s family and the movie that resulted from it is an intimate and introspective feature about a man named Will (Winston Duke), who is tasked with auditioning prospective souls for the chance to be born after a suicide opens up the opportunity. Benedict Wong plays Kyo, Will’s friend and neighbor in the remote world before the world; Zazie Beetz, David Rysdahl, Arianna Ortiz, Tony Hale and Bill Skarsgård are the souls vying for a turn at life on Earth.