August Spotlight

nothing, except everything

Directed by Wesley Wang | Drama | 12 min

August’s Spotlight packs adolescent nostalgia, existential dread, and the thrill of first love into the stylish and charismatic 12-minute short film nothing, except everything. It all begins with the number 7.

An homage to the pantheon of coming-of-age films like the Pittsburgh-based The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Wesley Wang directed this short when he was 19 years old and graduating from high school. Soon after screening at the Three Rivers Film Festival in 2023 and going viral on YouTube, Darren Aronofsky and Sony Tristar took notice. They bought the rights to the film and put Wang at the helm to adapt nothing, except everything into a feature-length film, making him the youngest director in history to set up a movie at a major studio.

“For all my life, I’ve been told I’m too young to make movies,” said Wang. “But I hope this is a reminder that everyone has a story to tell.”