Roseanne Liang is a New Zealand film director.[1] Her first feature film, My Wedding and Other Secrets, was the first theatrically released feature film made by a Chinese New Zealander and became 2011's highest grossing local feature film.[2] She also co-created, directed, and co-wrote the 2021 TV series Creamerie.
Roseanne Liang | |
---|---|
Born | New Zealand |
Alma mater | University of Auckland |
Occupation | Filmmaker |
Years active | 2003–present |
Liang was born in New Zealand to Hong Kong emigrants. Her parents were doctors, one was a pediatrician and the other a surgeon.[3] She has two sisters.[4] Liang attended St Cuthbert's College, Auckland, and was dux of the school in 1995.[5]
She went on to study computer science at the University of Auckland.[3] She graduated with a Masters in Creative and Performing Arts in 2003.[4]
Liang made her directorial debut with the autobiographical documentary film Banana in a Nutshell (2005), which was about her own cross-cultural romance with a Pākehā.[6] The film won Best Documentary at DOCNZ International Documentary Film Festival.[7] Liang won Best Director of Documentary Films at Asian Festival of First Films.[7] The film was screened at New Zealand International Film Festival 2005,[8] where she met John Barnett, a producer from South Pacific Pictures, who requested a feature length adaptation of the documentary.[4]
That project later became the romantic comedy My Wedding and Other Secrets (2011).[1] The film won Best Actress and Best Screenplay Award for a feature film at the Aotearoa Film & Television Awards.[2]
Liang also directed the short film Take 3, which won awards in 2007 at the Berlin and Valladolid Film Festivals, and the hit web series Flat3 and Friday Night Bites.[9][10] In 2008, she was awarded Women in Film and Television International's Woman to Watch Award for Women in Film and Television.[5]
Liang is a part of the Thousand Apologies Collective, a creative cohort of seven writers and filmmakers based in Auckland, New Zealand, which includes Shuchi Kothari and Serina Pearson. They made their television debut with their pan-Asian sketch comedy series A Thousand Apologies on TV3, New Zealand's first prime time Asian program.[11][12] Kothari and Liang later cofounded the Pan-Asian Screen Collective with others in August 2018 to support Asian filmmakers in New Zealand.[13]
In 2017, she directed a short film Do No Harm, which was selected to be shown at the Manhattan Short film festival[14] and the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.[15]
In 2020, Liang directed and co-wrote Shadow in the Cloud, a WWII action-horror film, starring Chloë Grace Moretz from a story treatment by Max Landis. It debuted at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People's Choice Award.[16]
Short film
Year | Title | Director | Writer |
---|---|---|---|
2005 | Rest Stop | Yes | No |
2008 | Take 3 | Yes | Yes |
2015 | Sugar Hit | Yes | Yes |
2017 | Do No Harm | Yes | Yes |
Feature film
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2005 | Banana in a Nutshell | Yes | No | Documentary |
2011 | My Wedding and Other Secrets | Yes | Yes | |
2020 | Shadow in the Cloud | Yes | Yes | |
Television
Year | Title | Director | Writer |
---|---|---|---|
2008 | A Thousand Apologies | Yes | Yes |
2021 | Creamerie | Yes | Yes |
TBA | Avatar: The Last Airbender | Yes | No |
Web series
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2013 | Flat3 | Yes | Yes | 12 episodes |
2016-2018 | Friday Night Bites | Yes | Yes | |
2017 | Unboxed | Yes | No | 6 episodes |
Liang is married to Stephen Harris, the subject of Banana in a Nutshell.[17] They have two children.[16]
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