Diana Hsuan Chao

Diana Hsuan Chao is a Taiwanese writer-director, who earned her MFA in Film Production at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. As a filmmaker who was an English major in Taiwan and went to study film (...) production in the US, she benefits from her studies of English literature and is able to explore unconventional ways of visual expression for story-telling while integrating filmmaking and financial resources from different locations. Her multi-cultural backgrounds give her tools to understand and communicate not only as a creator of stories but also a director for her projects. Her recent short BIG LITTLE MAN (2019) received the Taiwan Ministry of Culture’s grant for short films and Taiwan United Fund and had its world premiere at The Oscar and BAFTA qualifying Rhode Island International Film Festival and the Golden Harvest Award for Outstanding Short Films. Her thesis, THE RESTORATION (2014), premiered at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival and many other film festivals overseas and was awarded at the Rochester International Short Film Festival and Long Island Film Expo for its cinematography and original score. Her following work MATCH (2016) is a Brazil-US collaboration short that won Best Romantic Short and Best International Short at the Near Nazareth Film Festival and Festival Angaelica. During the 6 years in the US, she expanded her horizons through working on-set for critically acclaimed international projects. She directed and shot promotions for the US-China co-production feature FINDING MR. RIGHT in New York City, 2012 and worked with the KUNGFU PANDA III team as interpreter and translator at Dreamworks in 2014. After relocating back to Taiwan, she joined the team of Vidlings & Tapeheads Film Festival, a Michigan-based fest and has worked remotely as their senior programmer since 2017. She also worked as director and curator of Taiwan’s Culinary Literature Exhibition —Savoring Taiwan, hosted by Taiwan Academy, in Los Angeles, 2018. Her feature project LIFE DERAILED, currently in development, was selected for the 6th Produire au Sud Taipei Workshop and Talents Tokyo, where it received development funding through Talents Tokyo’s Next Masters Support Program. It also received a feature film subsidy from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture. Her latest work, MIND FUCK, an episode of the series ZERO-DAY supported by the “One Plus Four T-Content Plan,” is currently in post-production.