Yang Mingming

Yang Mingming (; born 1987) is a Chinese filmmaker. She graduated from the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts. Female Directors is one of her significant work.

Early life and education Yang began learning to dance at five and a half years old but she gave it up when she was sixteen. She said: “I had a grand appetite, but being a dancer requires you to control your weight. And my family was conventional, they had this concern that it would be better for me to have literacy education.”

As for film, she didn't even think of being a director in the future before she went to college, and she didn't know that the directing major would start to make films at very early in their studies. Directing used to cost her too much energy on negotiating and communicating, which she thought it might be a wrong major for her to learn it. It was only by her junior year that she began to feel that she was on the right track. There were two things influenced her to become a director: 1. Watching films every day. As it was a part of her daily assignment she gave herself, it worked very well that she found her patience on film, and further the patience of being a director. 2. French director Robert Bresson. There was a time that she spent 40 mins in biking to visit Robert Bresson's Film Exhibition in Beijing. On the way she accidentally met a torrential rain, and since then she interpreted Robert Bresson differently than anyone else. “The rain made my trip sacred.” she said, “It beautifully connected me and Robert Bresson." Robert Bresson's Mouchette (1967) greatly influenced her and later on inspired all of her works. She said: “I couldn’t stop thinking about Mouchette whenever I wrote about women and women’s agony.

Awards and nominations Year Festival Award Film Result 2016 The WIFTS Foundation International Visionary Awards The Jury Award Crosscurrent Winner 2018 Berlin International Film Festival Best First Feature Award Girls Always Happy Nominated 2018 Edinburgh International Film Festival Best International Feature Film Girls Always Happy Nominated 2018 Edinburgh International Film Festival Grand Prix Girls Always Happy Nominated 2018 Hong Kong International Film Festival Golden Firebird Award Girls Always Happy Winner 2018 Hong Kong International Film Festival FIPRESCI Prize Girls Always Happy Winner 2018 International Women's Film Festival Seoul Best Director Girls Always Happy Winner 2018 Seattle International Film Festival China Stars Best New Talent Girls Always Happy Winner 2018 Shanghai International Film Festival Media Choice Award Girls Always Happy Winner