Guoqing liu

Guo-qing Liu has started his career as a freelance story writer at a very young age, and hundreds of his works have been published in major domestic newspapers and magazines including Southern People Weekly, Youth Digest, Qi-lu Evening News and Yangtse Evening News. In 2009, he was granted a full scholarship to pursue the Phd program in Mechanical Engineering in the United States. Upon his Phd graduation in 2013, he was admitted into USC School of Cinematic Arts. In 2017, he successfully held a MFA degree in Film and TV Production. His Thesis film Release got into major international film festivals including 2018 Palm Spring International Film Festival as well as LA Shorts International Film Festival. His screenwriter debut The Long Night (2020) became a huge hit domestically in China, and is considered one the best Chinese TV series of 2020.

Ewan Gotfryd

Ewan is an Emmy Award-winning director and Sundance Award-winning producer with over fourteen years’ worth of experience in the industry. Fresh from directing his most recent film starring Academy Award-winner Helen Mirren and Breaking Bad’s RJ Mitte. He first discovered his love of filmmaking while growing up in a video store in Ireland, later moving to the States where he began his career producing YouTube content while interning for the iconic children’s series Sesame Street, which he would later go on to produce and direct. Since his YouTube days, producing channels that generated billions of views and millions of subscribers; Ewan has gone on to have a long career working for various networks and major studios; Paramount Pictures, HBO, EPIX, NBC/Universal, and BBC. Thanks to the guidance of Beavis & Butt Head creator, Mike Judge, Ewan has been creatively pursuing animation and tapping back into his comedic roots. Most recently directing and developing the animated pilot Adults Only which featured a blend of various art forms such as miniatures, stop motion, and cel animation starring Blake Anderson, Christa B. Allen, and Jason Mewes.

Joe zheng

 Joe Zheng, bilingual producer/director. Graduated from Beijing Film Academy and USC, he has been developing/producing a variety of film projects in Los Angeles in the last decade, and was nominated and endowed with important awards including: Student Oscar (Narrative), Young Generation Chinese Filmmakers’ Forum, The Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival, etc.  He is currently working with the Center for Visual Anthropology of USC as producer. In 2019, he founded LightSeeking Pictures in Los Angeles and Shanghai, and focuses on developing film projects in Chinese with a global perspective. 

Jeff Chao

Jeff Chao, Vice President of Finance and Business Development at Digital Domain. Jeff was Senior Director, Finance at Participant Media, where he managed film investments for a $250 million film fund between Participant Media and Image Nation Abu Dhabi, which produced films such as “Lincoln”, “The Help”, “Hundred Foot Journey”, “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel I & II”, “Contagion” and “Snitch.” Mr. Chao has had direct involvement with film investments for over 31 films with budgets ranging from $2 million – $75 million. During his time at Participant Media, Jeff also supervised the growth of the Digital division, TakePart.com from a blog to a Multi-Channel Network (MCN) with 10 million views per month. Jeff was also involved in the acquisition and set up of Pivot Television, a cable network for social good that won an Emmy award for Joseph Gordon Levitt’s “Hit Record”.

Ying liang

After finishing her Master studies on Human Sciences in France, LIANG Ying worked as production manager in film and TV in Europe, and served as Head of Production & Acquisitions at Hong Kong company Asian Shadows specialized in Asian-European co-production and international sales. She worked closely with filmmakers as Wang Bing, Wang Xiaoshuai or Lou Ye. She is a coproducer on TA’ANG (Forum, Berlinale 2016), BITTER MONEY (Orrizonti Best Script Award, Venice 2016), an associate producer of Wang Xiaoshuai’s CHINESE PORTRAIT (Busan 2018), an executive producer of DEAD SOULS (Cannes official, 2018）amongst others. From 2018 she is a partner and producer at Shanghai and Beijing based independent production house Factory Gate Films. Recently she has produced DWELLING IN THE FUCHUN MOUNTAINS (Gu Xiaogang, Cannes Critics Week 2019), SUMMER BLUR (Han Shuai, FIPRESCI Award at Busan IFF 2020), co-produced BALLOON (Pema Tseden, Venice Orizzonti 2019). She’s also an Executive Producer of STARS AWAIT US (Zhang Dalei, Pingyao IFF 2021) and a Associate Executive Producer of DAMP SEASON (Gao Ming, IFFR 2020). Factory Gate Films is now developing a dozen feature films and TV series of outstanding Chinese young directors. 

Ying-xiang Huang

Ying-xiang Huang is an uprising bilingual (Ch/Eg) director. She holds a bachelor degree from Peking University School of Arts as well as an MFA from Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts. Her thesis film Isa and the Frog Prince won the 37th Student Emmy Award, the 21st DGA Student Award, and many others. She returned to China and made her director debut, the web series Your Fukubukuro, distributed by Youku and was rated 8.3 by Douban. She worked as the executive director in the movie Saga of Light, and also was the B unit director in the movie Twin Blades, starring Beth Behrs and Li Ma. She just wrapped her recent web series Dreaming of the Lion.

Bobby Zhang

Bobby Zhang is a bilingual producer, alumni of ArtCenter College of Design Grad Film program. He used to work in film/tv business in Los Angeles, concentrating on project developing, financing and acquisition.  After relocating to China, he has produced several web series for streaming platform iQiyi. He is now focusing on the digital distribution of foreign contents. His favorite genre includes sci-fi, suspense and comedy.

Tian guan

Tian Guan is a writer/director based in Beijing. He majored in theatre directing in college and earned his MFA degrees in film production from Syracuse University and CalArts. His short films have screened or been awarded widely at international film festivals, including LA Film Fest, Montreal, Warsaw, Leeds, Gijon, Slamdance, Palm Springs, New Orleans, DokuFest, etc. His work was also collected by John Hopkins University MICA Film Center. Tian served as the co-director of programming of 2017 LACFF, primary jury of 2018 FIRST International Film Fest and 2020 NEW ERA Film Fest. He is currently working on his first feature script which has been selected by HongKong Asia Financing Forum Lab and FIRST Feature Lab.

Vanessa kong

Vanessa Kong is a Chinese/English bilingual screenwriter based in Los Angeles. In 2012, She graduated from Beijing Language and Culture University with a BA degree in English literature. From 2012 to 2016, Vanessa took multiple positions at Beijing Axios Translation Co. and worked her way up to partnership in the company. During her time there, she translated scripts and subtitles for more than 200 feature films, TV shows, reality shows as well as documentaries from English into Chinese. After working in film/TV translation for 4 years, Vanesa came to the U.S. to further her study as a screenwriter. In 2018, she graduated from American Film Institute Conservatory with an MFA degree in screenwriting. Vanessa has co-written two award-winning short films: New Years’ Eve, and The Chef. Her feature script Newton in China has advanced to the second round in the 2019 Sundance Development Lab. Her other work includes a comedy pilot Talk Yellow to Me, a rom-com feature IKEA Beijing A Love Story, and a historical drama Water Tossing Boulders. She is represented by Creative Artists Agency (CAA).

vivian wang

Vivian Wang is a bilingual CAA repped screenwriter with over a decade of experience in Hollywood and the Chinese film industry. She wrote the hit Youku show GOOD BYE, MY LOVER, as well as THE OLD CINDERLLA and FOREVER YOUNG for Chuan Films, Beijing Enlight Pictures and China Film Co. She was an associate producer who provided additional writing on STX and Alibaba’s UGLYDOLLS.

Vivian’s vivid characters grapple with emotional dilemmas that grow from deeply rooted problems in the society. Thus her works are grounded in truth and sincerity regardless of genre.

She earned her bachelor's degree and MA from Peking University School of Arts.

Yanyu dong

Yanyu Dong is a Chinese filmmaker, visual artist, and film festival programmer currently based in Los Angeles. She explores contemporary ethnographic practices in her work as platforms to examine her own cultural dissonance as an international artist. She received her BFA at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts and her MFA at the California Institute of the Arts. She is currently working on her debut feature, and programming for festivals including the Los Angeles Chinese Film Festival and the Slamdance Film Festival. She also served as the preliminary Judge for the 4th HiShorts! Film Festival in 2020. She is a U.S. Extraordinary Artist Visa (O1) holder.

Yanyu’s work has been exhibited at venues internationally. She received the “Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker” at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the “Best Experimental Short” at the HiShorts! Film Festival and “Best Short Award” nomination at the Edinburgh International Film Festival among others.

xuan zhang

Xuan Zhang is the chair of the Los Angeles Chinese Film Festival (LACFF) and the co-executive director of the Chinese In Entertainment (CIE). Xuan joined LACFF in 2018 and has curating and organizing the festival since then. She jumped into the film industry from a Mass Communication background. As an independent director/producer, she has worked with Bob Balaban, Leonard Nimoy, Lily Tomlin, Matt Groening. Also, she has directed/produced several documentary TV series in the U.S for CCTV, Wall Street Journal and Phoenix Television interviewed her for her documentary, Over The Rainbow.

Wenqi You

Wenqi You is an award-winning writer/director with years of production experience both in China and the United States. She has deep knowledge of both the business side as well as the creative side of the industry, and is capable of balancing those two. As a true collaborator with cultural sensitivity and excellent communication skills, she wishes to tell emotional stories that touch the audience as human beings, with innovative cinematic language inspired by advanced technologies and traditional Chinese culture.