awards and distinctions.
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WINNER: "Autopilot" - Best Short Film, Vail Film Festival
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WINNER: "Autopilot" - Best Short Film, Blue Planet Science Fiction Film Festival (China)
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WINNER: "Autopilot" - Best Director, Busan New Wave Film Festival (Korea)
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WINNER: "Autopilot" - Outstanding Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Micheaux Film Festival
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WINNER: "Autopilot" - Audience Award, Etheria Film Night on AMC's Shudder
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WINNER: "The Fallen Woman" - Audience Award at the Unnamed Footage Film Festival
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OSCAR-QUALIFIED: "Fetish" - Worldwide theatrical run, Manhattan Short Film Festival
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WINNER: "Fetish" - Best Short Film, Hot Springs International Women's Film Festival
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WINNER: "Fetish" - Best Actress - Vanguard Award, Idyllwild Film Festival
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WINNER: "Fetish" - Panavision Award for Outstanding Short, Micheaux Film Festival
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WINNER: "Fetish" - Award of Prestige - Best Indie Short, Best Comedy, Best Duo, Las Vegas Movie Awards
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WINNER: "Charon" - Best Feature Film, International Mobil Film Festival
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WINNER: "Charon" - Best Actress in a Leading Role, International Independent Film Awards
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WINNER: "Charon" - Best Actress, Best Feature Film, IndieFEST Film Festival
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WINNER: "Fight: The Musical!" - Best Comedy Screenplay, Action on Film
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WINNER: "The Evil Inside: - Best Narrative Feature, Best Screenplay, Women's Independent Film Festival
projects.
about.
Featured in “Deadline” in 2021 for her ambitious solo-effort film, Charon, hitting the Cannes film market, Jennifer Zhang has emerged as an Asian American filmmaker to watch. The feature, which Dread Central proclaimed was “dominating the festival circuit” as a “brutal exploration of isolation and betrayal” was acquired shortly after by Summerhill Entertainment and will see a 2023 U.S. release.
Momentum in her career has only mounted since, with her short film “Fetish" winning the Panavision-sponsored grand prize at the prestigious Micheaux Film Festival and becoming Oscar-qualified with a theatrical run as a top 10 finalist in the Manhattan Short Film Festival. “Fetish” is the first film on the subject of race-based fetishism to enjoy this distinction.
Jennifer’s multi-faceted entertainment career spans 15 years – beginning with mass media attention over her viral parody content in the early days of YouTube, which she leveraged into the production of her debut feature film. The Evil Inside –written, produced, and co-starring Zhang – was an independent horror which won numerous “Best Narrative Feature” and “Best Screenplay” festival awards before ultimately being picked up for worldwide distribution on DVD, Bluray and VOD.
Jennifer currently on the festival circuit with “Autopilot” – a science-fiction thriller short which she wrote and directed. Co-produced with lead actress Gina Su and shot by American Cinematographer Magazine “Rising Star” Daphne Qin Wu, the film is a conscious effort to boost Asian female representation in the science fiction genre, both in front of and behind the camera.
As a writer, Jennifer is a respected story consultant with Hollywood’s Save the Cat!, and her screenplays have been optioned by executive producers of Academy Award-nominated films. Several of her scripts are currently in active development with production companies around Los Angeles. Meanwhile over the coming months, Jennifer is slated to begin production and pre-production on her third and fourth features, Trüebadour and Angela. Her aim is to make her mark on the industry with elevated genre films and entertaining series that pack powerful messages about the human experience.
