Jennifer Phang is an American filmmaker (writer, director, producer), most known for her feature films ''

Advantageous ''Advantageous'' is a 2015 American science fiction drama film starring Jacqueline Kim, James Urbaniak, Freya Adams, Ken Jeong, Jennifer Ehle, and Samantha Kim. The film was released exclusively on Netflix on June 23, 2015. Plot Set in the near fu ...

'' (2015) and ''

Half-Life Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable ato ...

'' (2008). ''Advantageous'' premiered at the 2015

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

, winning a Special Jury Award for Collaborative Vision, and was based on her award-winning short film of the same name. ''Half-Life'' premiered at the 2008

and won "Best Film" awards at a number of film festivals including the Gen Art Film Festival, the

San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival CAAMFest, known prior to 2013 as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), is presented every March in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States as the nation’s largest showcase for new Asian American and Asia ...

(now known as

CAAMFest CAAMFest, known prior to 2013 as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), is presented every March in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States as the nation’s largest showcase for new Asian American and Asia ...

) as well an "Emerging Director Award" at the

Asian American International Film Festival The Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) is the first and longest-running film festival to showcase the works of emerging and experienced Asian and Asian American filmmakers and media artists in the US. The programming includes a di ...

Early life

Phang (pronounced "Pong") grew up in the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

and is currently based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. She was born in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

and is of mixed

Chinese Malaysian Malaysian Chinese (; Malay: ''Orang Cina Malaysia''), alternatively Chinese Malaysians, are Malaysian citizens of Han Chinese descent. They form the second largest ethnic group after the Malay majority constituting 22.4% of the Malaysian p ...

and

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

heritage. She graduated from

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became ...

with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies, and also graduated from the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

with a Masters of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Film Directing. She has also participated in the

San Francisco Film Society SFFILM, formerly known as The San Francisco Film Society, is a nonprofit arts organization located in San Francisco, California, that presents year-round programs and events in film exhibition, media education, and filmmaker services. The Execut ...

Women Filmmaker Fellowship. In 2008, Phang was named as one of the "25 new Faces of Independent Film" by

Filmmaker Magazine ''Filmmaker'' is a quarterly publication magazine covering issues relating to independent film. The magazine was founded in 1992 by Karol Martesko-Fenster, Scott Macaulay and Holly Willis. The magazine is now published by the IFP (Independent Film ...

. In 2015, she was selected as one of six Women at Sundance Fellows. In 2016 she was also selected for the Warner Bros. Television Directors' Workshop where she met the director/producer of ''

Breaking Bad ''Breaking Bad'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White (Bryan Cranston), an underpaid, overqualified, and dispirited hig ...

'' and ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first ...

'',

Michelle MacLaren Michelle Maxwell MacLaren is a Canadian television director and producer. She has directed episodes of ''The X-Files'', ''Better Call Saul'', '' Breaking Bad'', '' The Walking Dead'', '' Game of Thrones'', and ''Westworld''. MacLaren won two bac ...

, who became her mentor.

Career

Feature films

Phang's debut feature film that she directed and wrote was entitled ''

'' (2008) and it starred

Sanoe Lake Sànoe Lake is an American actress, model, and surfer. Early life Lake was born and raised on Kauai, Hawaii. She is of Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, German, Irish and English descent. Her name "Sànoe" means "The Mist of the Mountains." Lake w ...

Julia Nickson-Soul Julia Nickson is a Singaporean–American actress. She first came to the attention of audiences in the United States in the Sylvester Stallone film '' Rambo: First Blood Part II''. She appeared in the 2004 film '' Ethan Mao'' and in the 2008 in ...

Leonardo Nam Leonardo Nam (born November 5, 1979) is an Australian actor. He made his breakthrough as Roy in ''The Perfect Score'' (2004), and gained further recognition for his roles as Morimoto in '' The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'' (2006) and Brian ...

James Eckhouse James Hays Eckhouse (born February 14, 1955) is an American actor, best known for playing Characters of Beverly Hills, 90210, Jim Walsh on ''Beverly Hills, 90210''. He also directed three episodes of the show. Career Before his part on ''Beve ...

Susan Ruttan Susan Diane Ruttan (née Dunsrud; born September 16, 1948) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Roxanne Melman on ''L.A. Law'' (1986–1993), for which she was nominated four times for a Primetime Emmy Award. Life and caree ...

and Alexander Agate. The film premiered at the 2008

in the New Frontiers section, and also screened at the

Gen Art Film Festival Gen Art is an arts and entertainment organization that showcases emerging fashion designers, filmmakers, musicians and visual artists. It has produced over 100 events annually, which included fashion shows, film premieres and screenings, live music ...

(where it won a Best Feature award), the

(where it won a Best Narrative award), the

(where Phang won the "Emerging Director Award"), the

Fairy Tales International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival The Fairy Tales Queer Film Festival (formerly the ''Fairy Tales International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival'') is an annual event held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Since its founding in 1999, the festival has attracted over 35,000 attendees. It is ...

(where it won the Visionary Award), the

Tokyo International Film Festival The is a film festival established in 1985. The event was held biennially from 1985 to 1991 and annually thereafter. Along with the Shanghai International Film Festival, it is one of Asia's competitive film festivals, and is considered to be the ...

(where it was in-competition and was nominated for the Tokyo Grand Prix), the

Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival The Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival (german: Internationales Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg), often referred to by the German-language initialism IFFMH, is an annual film festival established in 1952 hosted jointly by the citi ...

(where it was also in competition and nominated for the Main Award), and the International Women's Film Festival in

Seoul, Korea Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

(where it was opening night film). The film received a limited theatrical release on December 1, 2009. After Half life, Phang's follow-up project was, ''Look For Water'', and ''Crazy Beats Strong Every Time''. Phang received a grant from the Sundance Institute Cinereach Grant, the Sundance Annenberg Feature Film Fellowship, and the Tribeca Film Festival to support these developments. Phang's follow up film that she directed, wrote and edited was ''Advantageous'' (2015), which was based on her award-winning short film of the same name. The film starred

Jacqueline Kim Jacqueline Joan Kim is an American writer, actress, filmmaker and composer. She was nominated for a FIND Independent Spirit award for Best Supporting Actress in the film '' Charlotte Sometimes''. Early life Kim was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to ...

Ken Jeong Kendrick Kang-Joh Jeong (, ; born July 13, 1969) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, producer, writer and licensed physician. He rose to prominence for playing Leslie Chow in ''The Hangover'' film series (2009–2013) and Ben Chang in the ...

James Urbaniak James Christian Urbaniak (born September 17, 1963) is an American character actor. He is best known for his roles as Simon Grim in three Hal Hartley films: ''Henry Fool'' (1997), ''Fay Grim'' (2006) and ''Ned Rifle'' (2014), Robert Crumb in ''Ame ...

, Freya Adams and Samantha Kim. The film also premiered in competition at the 2015

(nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Dramatic films), where it won the Grand Jury Prize for Collaborative Vision given to both Phang and star

with the inscription: "We are honoring two individuals for their unique collaborative vision. Two women that between them wrote, starred and co-edited a beautiful parable about a mother's love, sacrifice and society's worship of youth." At the 2015

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) – formerly known as VC FilmFest – is an annual film festival presented by Visual Communications (VC). It was established in 1983 by Linda Mabalot as a vehicle to promote Asian Pacific Amer ...

, the film won, under the Narrative Feature category, Best Director (Jennifer Phang), Best Editor (Jennifer Phang and Sean Gillane), Best Musical Score (Timo Chen), and star

also won the Linda Mabalot Renaissance Spirit Award for her performance. Advantageous was released to Netflix June 2015.

Short films

Phang directed, wrote and edited a short film entitled ''Advantageous'' (2012) - the basis of the 2015 feature film of the same name - which imagined various scenarios and stories that took place in the future. The film won a Best Science Fiction Film award at the

Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival The Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Providence, Rhode Island, which features a wide variety of horror, sci-fi, and thriller films, as well as documentaries, from the United States and around the w ...

and also the Golden Reel Award for Best Short Film at the 2012

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...

. It was also nominated for "Best Short Film" at

Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of ''The Iron Gi ...

, the

Cleveland International Film Festival The Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) is an annual film festival based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is the largest film festival in Ohio. It was first held in 1977, showing eight films over a period of eight weeks at the Cedar Lee Theatre. It ...

, the

Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival The Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival (PAAFF) is an annual film festival in Philadelphia that shows feature films and short films by and about Asian Americans. Run by the nonprofit Philadelphia Asian American Film and Filmmakers, the 10-day ...

, the

Philadelphia Film Festival The Philadelphia Film Festival is a film festival founded by the Philadelphia Film Society held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The annual festival is held at various theater venues throughout the Greater Philadelphia Area. Overview The annual f ...

, the

San Diego Asian Film Festival The San Diego Asian Film Festival ( SDAFF) is an annual event organized by Pacific Arts Movement (formerly the San Diego Asian Film Foundation) that takes place every November in San Diego, California. Background SDAFF is the flagship event for ...

, the

San Diego Comic-Con International San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is co ...

Independent Film Festival, and the Urbanworld Film Festival. Other short films that Phang directed include ''Midnight Boycow'' (2007) starring Rex Lee and ''Love, Ltd.'' (2000), which Phang also co-wrote with Jeff Kirschenbaum.

Television

Phang has guest-directed on episodic series television, including for ''

The Boys Boys are young male humans. Boys or The Boys may also refer to: Film and television Films * ''The Boys'' (1962 British film), a courtroom drama by Sidney J. Furie * ''The Boys'' (1962 Finnish film), a war drama by Mikko Niskanen * ''Boys'' ( ...

'', '' Cloak & Dagger'', '' Quantico'', ''

The Expanse Expanse or The Expanse may refer to: Media and entertainment ''The Expanse'' franchise * ''The Expanse'' (novel series), a series of science fiction novels by James S. A. Corey * ''The Expanse'' (TV series), a television adaptation of the ...

'', '' Riverdale'', '' Major Crimes'', ''

The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty W ...

'', ''

Proven Innocent ''Proven Innocent'' is an American legal drama television series created by David Elliot, which premiered on February 15, 2019, on Fox. The series follows the employees of a wrongful conviction law firm and stars Rachelle Lefevre, Russell Hornsby ...

'', '' Stargirl'' and ''

Resident Alien In law, an alien is any person (including an organization) who is not a citizenship, citizen or a nationality, national of a specific country, although definitions and terminology differ to some degree depending upon the continent or region. ...

''. She remarks that it is interesting to work in an established universe with characters already defined, and to direct a wide variety of actors who are already familiar with their characters. In her opinion, TV directing work, in addition to the extra income, improves her versatility and adaptability in her film projects.

Music videos and other media projects

Phang also directed and wrote a piece entitled ''Glass Butterfly'', a narrative music video featuring intensive visual effects, currently being completed via San Francisco's Studio 400A.

Screenwriting

For her screenplay ''Look for Water'', which she co-wrote with Dominic Mah, she was invited to the

Sundance Screenwriters' Lab Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and composers fr ...

in June 2008. The screenplay has also received the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

L'Oreal Woman of Worth Vision Award, a Sundance CineReach grant, and a

Sundance Institute Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and composers f ...

Annenberg Feature Film Fellowship Grant.

Editing and producing

Phang has also edited and produced the feature film ''Target Audience 9.1'' (2007), written and directed by Dominic Mah, produced the short film ''Sitter'' (2004) also written and directed by Dominic Mah, and served as executive producer for the short film ''Crazy Beats Strong Every Time'' (2011), directed and written by Moon Molson, and which was an official selection of the 2011

. Phang also shares an editing credit on her 2015 feature

. Phang works closely with Premiere Pro and uses After Effects when dealing with VFX.

Filmography

Short films Feature films Television

Awards

*2015 Sundance Film Festival *Winner, Special Jury Award for Dramatic Feature: ''Advantageous'' *Nominee, Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Feature: ''Advantageous'' *LA Asian Pacific Film Fest *Winner, Editing, score, and directing awards for ''Advantageous'' (feature) - 2015 *Winner, Golden Reel Award for Excellence in Short Film: ''Advantageous'' - 2013 *2012 Rhode Island Horror Film Festival *Winner, Best Science Fiction Film: ''Advantageous'' (Short) * Asian American International Film Festival *Winner, Best Narrative: ''Half Life'' - 2008 *Winner, Emerging Director Award for Best Feature: ''Half Life'' - 2008 *Nominee, Excellence in Short Filmmaking Award: ''Futurestate'' - 2013 *Austin Fantastic Fest *Nominee, Short Film Award: ''Advantageous'' (short) - 2012 *Cleveland International Film Festival *Nominee, Best Women's Short Film: ''Advantageous'' (short) - 2013 *Nominee, Best Live Action Short Film: ''Advantageous'' (short) - 2013 *Film Independent Spirit Awards *Nominee, John Cassavetes Award: (2016) Shared with Jacqueline Kim, Robert M. Chang, Ken Jeong, Moon Molson, Theresa Navarro *Gen Art Film Festival *Winner, Best Feature: ''Half-Life'' - 2008 *Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival *Nominee, Main Award of Mannheim-Heidelberg: ''Half-Life'' - 2008 *Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival *Nominee, Festival Prize: ''Advantageous'' (short) - 2012 *Philadelphia Film Festival *Nominee, Jury Award for Best Short: ''Advantageous'' (short) - 2012 *San Diego Asian Film Festival *Nominee, Jury Award for Best Narrative Short: ''Advantageous'' (short) - 2012 *San Diego Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival *Nominee, CCI:IFF Award for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Film: ''Advantageous'' (short) - 2012 *Tokyo International Film Festival *Nominee, Tokyo Grand Prix: ''Half-Life'' - 2008 *Urbanworld Film Festival *Nominee, Jury Prize for Best Short: ''Advantageous'' - 2012

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Phang, Jennifer Artists from Berkeley, California Living people Pomona College alumni AFI Conservatory alumni American people of Malaysian descent American film directors of Vietnamese descent Year of birth missing (living people) Film directors from San Francisco American women film directors