WRITER-DIRECTOR

Ziyao Liu is a writer-director based on Earth. 

She creates character-driven narratives of hybrid genres. Her goal is to reveal characters’ strengths and weaknesses in everyday moments and reimagine their lives that are otherwise constrained by reality. She loves to find humor in the absurdity of our existence beyond language and cultural barriers. 

A member of BAFTA Connect and a fellow of Armed with a Camera, she earned her MFA in Directing from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her BA in Film from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Born in China and now a resident alien in Los Angeles, she spends her free time tending her plants and walking in her neighborhood. 


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01 OUTBOUND

2027

narrative feature in post, digital, color, sound

In the wake of her father's death, a recently out-of-work Chinese marine biologist reunites with her estranged mother to embark on a road trip up the Pacific coast, for an interview that may be her last hope of staying in the country.


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The feature script is a semifinalist of the 2023 Humanitas New Voices Fellowship.

producers: Sophie Changhui Shi, Laura Scarano 
writer, director: Ziyao Liu 
cinematographer: Akina Van de Velde 
production designer: Zheng Wu, Yi Lin Zhao
editor: Zekun Mao, Emily Zhai

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@2025 by Ziyao Liu