Yan Yan Mak

She graduated from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts; as a student, Yan Yan had worked for the film industry as assistant director, production manager, art director and wardrobe designer. Her graduation short film Snapshots won the Distinguish Award at the International Short Film & Video Awards of Hong Kong in 1998.

After directing number of short dramas for Radio Television Hong Kong, she established her own production company Dragonfly J Ltd., to make her own film. Her debut feature film, Gege (Brother), although using a very limited budget, a small crew and an all non-actors cast, was awarded the FIPRESCI Award at the 25th Hong Kong International Film Festival, the POVEGLIA Award at the International Week of Film Critics of the 58th Venice Film Festival, the Woosuk Award at Jeonju International Film Festival in South Korea, as well as the Ecumenical Hury Prize at the International Film Festival Bratislava and Fribourg International Film Festival 2001.

Her second film Butterfly (Hudie) was chosen as the Opening Film at Venice Film Festival Critics Week (La Biennale di Venezia), the Hong Kong Gay & Lesbian Film and Video Film Festival 2004 and Créteil International Women's Film Festival in France 2005. The film won the Best Feature award at the Paris Lesbian and Feminist Film Festival. Tian Yuan was awarded as the Best New Artist at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2005. The film was also nominated at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards in 2004 for Best Adapted Screenplay (Yan Yan Mak) and Best Supporting Actor (Eric Kot). Butterfly has been screened at the Hong Kong Retrospective, the Hong Kong Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 2019.[1]

From 2005, after become the collaborator with Hong Kong Cantopop singer Denise Ho, Yan Yan has produced numeral music videos, music short films and TV Commercials. The Scarlet Robe has won the Best Drama in BigScreen Festival, China 2007. They had finished their first feature-length film The Decameron (a documentary about madness, under the music project "10 Days in the Madhouse") in 2009. Recently, Yan Yan has collaborated with Denise Ho as her concert producer and director in Reimagine Hong Kong (2015), Macpherson Woods (2015), Dear Friend, (2016) and On The Pulse Of Hocc Live 2018. She had also produced 'Galactica', concerts of singer Endy Chow Kwok Yin in 2017/18.

Yan Yan completed her another feature Merry-Go-Round (Dong Feng Po) in 2010 at Hong Kong. It had been elected as the Best Chinese-Language Film from Film Critics China, nominated at The Hong Kong Film Award 2011 for the Best Cinematography Award and won the Best Film Song Award ("Here to Stay" by Jun Kung), won the Best Actress (Ella Koon) and the Best Actor (Teddy Robin) at Australia Golden Koala Film Festival.

Her another feature work The Great War (2013), a documentary about Grasshopper x Softhard Concert 2012, has had its Gala premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival 2013 as also selected as the closing-film of the film festival.[2]

• Short film Snapshots won the Distinguish Award at the International Short Film & Video Awards of Hong Kong in 1998.
• Advertising work 'Numbers' for The Women's Foundation has been awarded at Film Craft section of AD STARS 2019 (Korea).

Feature length, as Producer/Director/Scriptwriter:

• 2001 Brother (Gege) [3]
• 2004 Butterfly (Hudie) [4]
• 2006 August Story (Director’s Cut) [5]
• 2008 The Decameron (Documentary)[6]
• 2010 Merry-Go-Round (Dong Fung Po) [7]
• 2013 The Great War (Da Zhan)(Concert Documentary) [8]

As Creative Director/Producer)

• 2015 Reimagine HK18 (HK Elizabeth Stadium)
• 2015 Reimagine Live in Macpherson Woods (MacPherson Stadium)
• 2016 Dear Friend, (Hong Kong Coliseum)
• 2017 Galactica (MacPherson Stadium)
• 2018 Galactica Rerun (MacPherson Stadium)
• 2018 On the Pulse Of HOCC Live 2018 (Hong Kong Science park)

• List of female film and television directors
• List of LGBT-related films directed by women

• Yan Yan Mak at IMDb