press.
more press.
awards and distinctions.
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WINNER: "Fighting Chance" - Pilot, Scriptapalooza
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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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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
about.
JJennifer Zhang is an award-winning writer/director with a track record of buzzworthy film projects with both commercial appeal and critical acclaim. Her latest feature, Trüebadour (starring Ryan Bergara and Kevin Kreider, with Jamie Lee Curtis executive producing) recently wrapped post-production and is gearing up for a 2026 world premiere.
Her debut horror feature, The Evil Inside (aka Dead Inside)—which she wrote and produced—was distributed worldwide in 2011 after a successful award-studded festival run. In 2021 she was spotlit in “Deadline” and on Japan’s national morning show “Mezamashi 8” for her solo-effort cyber thriller Charon hitting the Cannes film market, where it subsequently sold. Scripted and shot entirely under COVID-19 lockdown on a smartphone, Charon was hailed by Dread Central as “a brutal exploration of isolation and betrayal” with a “lead performance, cinematography, and script [that] are all full of purpose.”
Zhang has only seen the momentum in her writing career mount since.
In 2022, her short comedy “Fetish" won the Panavision-sponsored $30,000 grand prize at the prestigious Micheaux Film Festival and ultimately became Oscar-qualified after a worldwide theatrical run with Manhattan Short. Meanwhile, her 2024 short film “Autopilot” swept the genre festival circuit with top honors at the prestigious Vail Film Festival, China’s Blue Planet Science Fiction Film Festival grand juried by Three Body Problem author Cixin Liu, and an Audience Award at the Etheria Film Festival following a limited run on Shudder and AMC+.
Over the coming months, Jennifer is in development on her fourth and fifth features Angela and The Gingerbread Man. 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.
projects.
