Sen-I Yu is a New York based, award-winning filmmaker originally from Taiwan. She recently completed the post-production of her feature directorial debut MY HEAVENLY CITY, a film which explores the theme of blending into America, loneliness and human connections. The project is a winner of the Feature Film Production Fund by Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, as well as the Taipei Film Commission’s International Co-Production Grant. The short film version of MY HEAVENLY CITY won the 2020 NYC Women’s Fund by the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment and NY Foundation for the Arts. She has also directed six narrative short films, penned four screenplays and edited numerous feature films and documentaries.
Another feature project, MY BEAUTY QUEEN MOM, won the 2015 HAF/Fox Film Development Award, a Screenplay Development Grant from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture and a Bronze Award at the “Film Taipei” screenplay competition. Her screenplay CALIFORNIA MOMMY was a 2018 SFFILM Rainin Grant Finalist.
Sen-I’s earlier short film ACUPUNCTURE GIRL was a Student Academy Award Regional Finalist and a Wasserman Award Semi-finalist for Best Direction. Film festivals include the Asian American International Film Festival, Busan Asian Short Film Festival in Korea, Taipei Women Makes Waves Film Festival.
As an editor, Sen-I co-edited the 2017 NAACP Award nominee “THROUGH THE FIRE: THE LEGACY OF BARACK OBAMA,” a TV documentary for BET. Other credits include SEQUESTRADA (2019), an environmental-themed thriller, which was distributed in theater and on Amazon, LYLE (2014) an award-winning independent horror, starring Gaby Hoffmann, which aired on iTunes and Kanopy.
Sen-I has also directed various PSAs/commercial spots for Bristol Meyers Squibb and cosmetic makers L’O’real and Maybelline.
She is an alumna of the NYU Tisch Graduate Film Program with an MFA degree. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor in Cinema Production at Ithaca College.