Jennifer Phang

Jennifer Phangh
Born	Berkeley, California
Education	Pomona College (B.A.), American Film Institute (M.F.A.)
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter

Jennifer Phang is a filmmaker most known for her feature films Advantageous (2015), which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and won a Special Jury Award for Collaborative Vision there and was also based on her award-winning short film of the same name, and Half-Life (2008), which also premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival 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 (now known as CAAMFest) as well an "Emerging Director Award" at the Asian American International Film Festival.

Phang (which is pronounced "Pong") grew up in the Bay Area and is currently based in San Francisco. She was born in Berkeley, California and is of mixed Chinese Malaysian and Vietnamese heritage. She graduated from Pomona College with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies, and also graduated from the American Film Institute with a Masters of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Film Directing. She has also participated in the San Francisco Film Society Women Filmmaker Fellowship.

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

Phang's debut feature film that she directed and wrote was entitled Half-Life (2008) and it starred Sanoe Lake, Julia Nickson-Soul, Leonardo Nam, James Eckhouse, Susan Ruttan and Alexander Agate. The film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival in the New Frontiers section, and also screened at the Gen Art Film Festival (where it won a Best Feature award), the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (where it won a Best Narrative award), the Asian American International Film Festival (where Phang won the "Emerging Director Award"), the Fairy Tales International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (where it won the Visionary Award), the Tokyo International Film Festival (where it was in-competition and was nominated for the Tokyo Grand Prix), the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival (where it was also in competition and nominated for the Main Award), and the International Women's Film Festival in Seoul, Korea (where it was opening night film). The film was also released theatrically in selected cities on December 1, 2009.