Jessica Liu is a filmmaker who grew up straddling the cultural divide between Shanghai and the Bay Area, crafting stories with a unique mix of wit, emotional depth, and dark comedy. She specializes in exploring desire and longing within repressed characters—because, let’s be honest, what’s more fun than digging into the messiness of human emotions?
Her work has garnered recognition at Academy-qualifying film festivals like Cinequest, San Francisco Independent Film Festival, and Dances with Films, and is available for streaming on Amazon Prime and the Oscar-supported OTV platform.
Jessica’s romantic comedy feature, Ming & the Banana, earned a spot in the second round of Sundance’s Development Track. Her accolades include being selected for the 2024 Alliance of Women Directors’ Rising Director Fellowship, and 2024 Satellite Collective Fellowship. She also had the honor of being named a 2023 Frieze LA Fellow with Endeavor Content, Ghetto Film School, and Fifth Season. Oh, and did we mention Whohaha named her a “Comedic Creator to Follow” in their 2022 Comedy Call Out? Apparently, she’s pretty good at making people laugh (and think).
Her latest project Better Life is a grounded sci-fi dark comedy with Randall Park in the proof of concept short. She is developing the feature version. She is based in Los Angeles.
