Jennifer Phang

Jennifer Phang is one of the many who owes her film success to the Sundance Film Festival, and the festival circuit in general. After a debut film that didn't earn much attention, Phang brought her second feature, "Half-Life" (2008), to the Utah fest, earning widespread acclaim for her work. The dramatic sci-fi picture would continue to collect fans at further festivals, making Phang a figure to watch. Jennifer Phang was born in Berkeley, California, to Chinese-Malaysian and Vietnamese parents. Interested in filmmaking from the get-go, she pursued the realm academically at Pomona College (where she earned a Bachelor's degree in Media Studies), and then the American Film Institute (at which she would earn her Master's in Directing). Phang jumped straight into feature direction, helming the little-seen movie "Still Life" (1998) as her first release. Her works to follow would take form as short films: the gay-themed "Love, Ltd." (2000), the documentary project "The Matrices" (2003), and the comical "Midnight Boycow" (2007) would be her only creations over the course of the next decade before returning to long-form filmmaking. "Half-Life" (2008), the story of a fractured family as told through the events of a science-fiction catastrophe, debuted at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. "Half-Life" also appeared at the South by Southwest Film Festival, the Gen Art Film Festival, and the Tokyo International Film Festival that year. Phang's next film, "Advantageous" (2015), was a science-fiction drama starring Jacqueline Kim (who co-wrote the film with Phang), James Urbaniak, Ken Jeong, and Jennifer Ehle.