Lydia Rui (she/they) is an award-winning Chinese Australian writer/director based in London, UK. She is a National Film & Television School (NFTS) MA Directing Fiction graduate, with support from Screen Australia Enterprise and the Ian Potter Cultural Trust, and completed her BFA in Film & TV at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Her professional journey includes working as videographer for Beyoncé's Mrs. Carter World Tour, followed by a Director's Assistant position at Exit Films in Australia, and 2nd unit on Nick Rowland’s ‘Floodlights’. Lydia's feature film project, 'Counting Cards with My Father,' was selected for the 2023 TorinoScriptLab (where she won the arteKINO International Award), TIFF Filmmaker Lab (where she was an Every Story Fellow), and Zurich Film Festival Academy. In 2024, the screenplay was nominated as one of five feature scripts for the industry-recognized Brit List. She has recently completed the BBC Writers: London Voices program whilst being mentored by BAFTA & Emmy nominee Weronika Tofilska as part of the BBC x EAST mentorship scheme.
As writer/director, Lydia's short films have screened at Oscar and BAFTA-qualifying festivals, including Tribeca Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, HollyShorts, and Rhode Island International Film Festival. Her work has been Vimeo Staff Picked, nominated twice for Australian Directors Guild awards, and won the 2020 Flickerfest Rebel8 Emerging Female Filmmaker Award.
