Historically, I haven’t paid much attention to movie shorts. I don’t know why, exactly—I think maybe I thought it would be difficult to tell a poignant story in such a short amount of time. I realize now that—of course—I shouldn’t have prejudged.
My dad heard about the short Daly City from Matt Weschler, a filmmaker he’s worked with a lot; he watched Daly City and immediately texted it to me, telling me to watch, and when—predictably—I didn’t, he nudged me, which is unusual for him, so I knew he must have really liked it.
I don’t know if he’d know just how much I’d like Daly City, though. It’s long for a short, at 15 minutes, and I can say honestly that it’s one of the best things I’ve watched in a long time—that includes tv, feature length movies, all of it. Told through the eyes of a young boy, probably around my son’s age, which is nine, Daly City is a brief look into one family’s experience of being immigrants in America, told mostly through food, although there are other parts of the story, too. I don’t want to give anything away. Simply put, it’s magic. It’s bittersweet and beautiful—and it’s autobiographical. The movie was made by the filmmaker Nick Hartanto, who immigrated with his family from Surabaya, Indonesia when he was four.
Nick’s done a bunch of commercial work for clients like Conde Nast and Netflix, and worked in restaurants, too–he’s big into food—but I personally feel strongly that he’s meant to be a famous movie director. His short film, The Dishwasher, which he co-directed, was awarded a Special Jury Mention at Tribeca 2019 and was then acquired by HBO Max. And, even more excitingly, Nick is now the first Indonesian-American to qualify for the Academy Awards—Daly City is currently For Your Consideration in the Best Live Action Short Film category, following its Academy Award–qualifying win at the 2025 Salute Your Shorts Film Festival, where it received both the Special Jury Award for Excellence in Directing and the Best Cinematography award.
My dad and I loved talking with Nick, and we hope that you’ll listen, and that you’ll watch Daly City. You can do that here, but if it gets nominated for an Oscar—fingers crossed!—it may have to be taken down, so please watch it while you can.
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