b. 1995 Guizhou, China,Chongyan Liu is a visual artist and filmmaker, currently based between Paris and Qiandongnan. She began her formal training in painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (2013-2017), after which she continued her studies at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, obtaining a Diplôme National Supérieur d’Arts Plastiques in 2022. In 2024, she completed a residency at Le Fresnoy - Studio National des Arts Contemporains, where she expanded her practice in visual arts with a focus on multimedia and audiovisual experimentation.
Spanning moving images, installation, sculpture, and painting, Chongyan’s practice employs multiple media. Through her approach, she invites audiences into layered sensory experiences, constructing speculative audiovisual spaces that probe how today’s socio-economic contradictions, intensified by technological acceleration, drive individual isolation and obstruct the evolution of personal into collective memory.
Her work has been featured in prominent international exhibitions and film festivals, including IDFA (Netherlands), Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival (Indonesia), the Beijing International Short Film Festival, Videoex (Switzerland), and Lo Schermo dell’Arte (Italy). Her upcoming feature documentary, The Missing People (previously entitled “Niche of th Dragon”), was selected for the Doc Station Talent Lab at the 74th Berlinale.
Education
2022-2024 Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing, France.
2022-2024 MFA., École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts (ENSBA), Paris, France.
2021 Double degree, "Artistes & Métiers de l’exposition" program, ENSBA, Paris, France.
2021 Exchange in Germany via Erasmus at Universität der Künste Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
2020-2021 BFA., École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts (ENSBA), Paris, France.
2013-2017 BFA. in oil painting, Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing, China.
2009-2013 School of Fine Arts affiliated to the Central Academy of Fine Arts of China, Beijing, China.
Residency
2025 Baopu·FELT, Kaili,Guizhou, China.
2024 Les Arches Citoyennes, Paris, France.
Festivals
2022 IDFA, Amsterdam,Netherland;
2022 The Soho London Independent Film Festival, London, UK;
2022 Film Diary NYC, New York, USA;
2022 BISFF, Beijing, China;
2022 Seoul International Pride Film Festival (SIPFF), Seoul, Korea;
2022 Fragments Festival, London, UK;
2022 Kansas City Underground Film Festival, USA;
2022 Videoex Festival, Zurich, Switzerland;
2022 SubTropical Independent Film Festival, Taipei, Taiwan;
2022 Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF), Zanzibar, Zanzibar Urban/West Region;
2022 SHORT TO THE POINT (STTP), Romania, Bucharest;
2022 Korean Short Independent Film Festival (CORÉEISFF), Seoul, Korea;
2020 Festival LES YEUX OUVERTES, Paris, France;
2019 CRÉATION JEUNE CINÉMA DIFFERENT Festival, Paris, France;
Prizes & Scholarships (Selected)
2026 Soho London Independent Film Festival, Best Director, United Kingdom.
2025 New Perspective Award in NewGen Film Festival in Berlin, Germany.
2024 Aditya Nanda Award for Best Film on Queer Mental Health; the 16th KASHISH Pride Film Festival, (South Asia's biggest LGBTQ+ film festival).
2024 MINT Chinese Film Festival, Best Short: C-Film in Focus, United Kingdom.
2024 Beijing International Short Film Festival, Best Film in Chinese Competition, Beijing, China.
2024 Neuflize OBC foundation grant, Tourcoing, France.
2023 Alula Film Festival (DC Chinese Film Festival), Best Short Documentary.
2023 Over-the-Rhine International Film Festival, Student Film Prize.
2023 Beaux-Arts de Paris, Prix des Fondations 2023, Paris, France.
Exhibition & Festivals (Selected)
Upcoming
Art Basel,Exhibition of the Uli Sigg Collection Basel, Switzerland.
2026
Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris, France. 2025
Norwich Film Festival, Norwich, United Kingdom.
Prix CLIM’ART 2025, Consulat Voltaire Paris, France.
Nuit Blanche, Paris, France.
Coté Court Film Festival, Pantin, France.
2024
PANORAMA 26, le Fresnoy - Studio national, Tourcoing, France.
Berlinale Talents, Doc Station, Berlin, Germany.
PRIDE Seoul International Film Festival, Seoul, Korea.
Beijing International Short Film Festival (BISFF), Beijing, China.
Lignes de Force: Interweavings of Movements, The Chapel of the Musée Paul Éluard, Saint-Denis, France.
2023
Intime et Moi, Louvre-Lens, Lens, France.
Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival, Indonesia.
Mulan International Film Festival, Toronto, Canada.
Over-The-Rhine International Film Festival, Cincinnati, USA.
Odyssey Chinese Cinema Season, London, United Kingdom.
Washington DC International Film Festival (DICFF), Washington, DC, United States.
2022
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), Short Film Competition, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Videoex Festival, Zurich, Switzerland.
Waiting Room, Fondation Ricard, Paris, France.
Age of Identity: A Feminine Lexicon, Salvatore Ferragamo Museum, Italy.
Masculinity: Invalid Traits, Gallery 46, London, United Kingdom.
2021
VISIO-10th edition European programme on artists’ moving images, in conjunction with the 14th Lo Schermo dell'Arte – Cinema and Contemporary Art Festival, Florence, Italy;
IN THE GARDEN, AS IF I WERE WALKING INTO A ROOM FULL OF STRANGERS AND ASKING WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON, Brunnenstraße 45, Berlin, Germany;
2019
Bruit Noir, the Villa des Art, Paris, France;
Solo Exhibition
2022 DNSAP (MFA), National School of Fine Arts (ENSBA), Paris, France;
2020 DNAP, (BFA), National School of Fine Arts (ENSBA), Paris, France;