Sen-I Yu
Website: seniyufilm.com
Sen-I Yu is a New York based, award-winning filmmaker originally from Taiwan. She recently wrote and directed her feature directorial debut MY HEAVENLY CITY, a film which explores the theme of blending into America, loneliness and human connections. MY HEAVENLY CITY was selected in the 43rd Hawaii International Film Festival and was nominated for NETPAC Award, an award to the best Asian feature film by a jury from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema in the global market. Since September 2023, MY HEAVENLY CITY has launched its worldwide theatrical release and has reached seven countries/regions, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, United States (limited,) UK (limited,) Canada (limited,) Malaysia and Australia (limited,) receiving positive reviews from media such as The Guardian, MovieWeb.com, Asia Movie Pulse: “Sen-I Yu’s sympathetic and humane film is a fresh, thoughtful takes on immigrant experience…” --The Guardian.
The short film version of MY HEAVENLY CITY won the 2020 NYC Women’s Fund by the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment and NY Foundation for the Arts. Sen-I's screenplay MY BEAUTY QUEEN MOM, won the 2015 HAF/Fox Film Development Award, a Screenplay Development Grant from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture and a Bronze Award at the “Film Taipei” screenplay competition. Another screenplay CALIFORNIA MOMMY was a 2018 SFFILM Rainin Grant Finalist.
As an editor, Sen-I co-edited the 2017 NAACP Award nominee “THROUGH THE FIRE: THE LEGACY OF BARACK OBAMA,” a TV documentary for BET. Other credits include SEQUESTRADA (2019), an environmental-themed thriller, which was distributed in theater and on Amazon, LYLE (2014) an award-winning independent horror, starring Gaby Hoffmann, which aired on iTunes and Kanopy.
Sen-I has also directed various PSAs/commercial spots for Bristol Myers Squibb and produced/edited cosmetic makers L’O’real and Maybelline.
She is an alumna of the NYU Tisch Graduate Film Program with an MFA degree.