Nicola Yunrui Li

A writer and director from China, Nicola Yunrui Li explores intimacy and family through restrained realism and open-ended storytelling, tracing emotional shifts within relationships. Her work is interested in moments of transition between generations, between lovers, and between who we were and who we are becoming.

Her debut feature A Weekend (2025, co-directed with Mel Sangyi Zhao) is currently in post-production. Her latest short River of Us (2025) screened at REDCAT, while her first short Peacock (2021) won multiple international awards, including Best LGBT Short Film at the South Film & Arts Academy Festival and Most Promising Director at the UWPG Film Festival.

Nicola has collaborated closely with acclaimed filmmakers Sharon Lockhart and Lina Yang, serving as assistant director and post-production supervisor on Lockhart’s latest feature Windward (2025), which will screen at the 63rd New York Film Festival. She was also a jury member for the Shanghai Film Festival.

She earned her MFA in Film Directing from the California Institute of the Arts and an MSc from University College London. Nicola is currently an Assistant Professor of Film Production at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.