Yan Yan Mak graduated from The Academy of Performing Arts in Hong Kong after
both studying and working part-time in the film industry. In 1998 her short film
Snapshots won the Distinguished Award at Hong Kong's International Short Film
and Video Awards (IFVA) and her first full-length feature Gege took away the
International Film Critics Federation Award for Young Asian Cinema at the 25th
Annual Hong Kong International Film Festival, the POVEGLIA Award for Best Film
Director of the International Week of Film Critics at the 58th Venice Film
Festival in 2001, the WOOSUK Award for Best Young Asian Film Director at Korea's
Jeonju International Film Festival in 2002, the ECUMENICAL Jury Prize at the
Bratislava International Film Festival in 2001 and the ECUMENICAL Award at the
Fribourg International Film Festival in 2002. Her second feature Butterfly was
selected as the Opening Film of Critics' Week at the 61st Venice International
Film Festival, and screened at the Hong Kong Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
2004 and Creteil International Women Directors Festival in France 2005.
"Films are magic; everybody needs a magician in the journey of life."
Yan Yan Mak's YNFP film is about the legendary horse gangs of Western
China.
