Ben Wang & Minnie Mills Topline ‘Admissions’ Road Trip Flick From Aimee Pham & Kai Sampadian

EXCLUSIVE: Ben Wang (Karate Kid: Legends) and Minnie Mills (The Summer I Turned Pretty) have wrapped on Admissions, an indie road trip flick from first-time feature filmmakers Aimee Pham and Kai Sampadian.

Both written and directed by the duo, the indie follows two college admissions officers, played by Wang and Mills, with opposing views of the admissions system. During a recruitment road trip across Illinois, they must confront the uneasy reality of deciding who gets to move forward while their own futures remain uncertain.

The film was shot in Chicago and throughout Illinois, with support from the Illinois Film Production Tax Credit. CJ Kari exec produced alongside producers Elias Ginsberg, Christian Vergara and Jake Prine. Danni Varenhorst, Sophie Pelosi, Jillian Le and Olivia Schwartz served as co-producers.

Pham and Sampadian are an L.A.-based pair of USC alumni whose script Place to Be was selected for the 2025 Black List. Their short film House Rules premiered at the Seattle Asian American Film Festival, where it won the Audience Choice Award for Favorite Narrative Short, and later screened at the Brooklyn Museum. They’re repped by Untitled Entertainment, CAA and Vainshtein Law.

Wang is coming off of Brian, a coming-of-age comedy that premiered at SXSW where he stars alongside William H. Macy and Randall Park, and David Wain’s Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, which premiered at Sundance. He previously led Disney+’s series American Born Chinese. Additional credits include The Long Walk, Karate Kid: Legends, 2024’s Mean Girls and Disney+’s Chang Can Dunk. He’ll next be seen in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping and is repped by Artists First, Stewart Talent and Schreck Rose Dapello.

Mills has been seen on Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty and Netflix’s Obliterated. Other credits include the indie California Scenario, which premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, and Wait, Your Car?, which premiered at Cannes in 2025. She is repped by Untitled Entertainment, Paradigm and Yorn Levine.