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.

Education

MFA in Film Directing, California Institute of the Arts
MSc in Project and Enterprise Management, University College London
BSc in International Business, University of Nottingham, Ningbo China

Specialization in Teaching

My teaching specializes in narrative filmmaking, with an emphasis on storytelling, directing, producing, and editing as interconnected creative practices. I encourage students to approach film not only as a technical craft, but as a process of developing ideas, shaping performances, and making meaningful narrative choices.

In the classroom, I focus on process-based learning. Students are guided to develop projects through writing, rehearsal, production, and post-production, with attention to both artistic intention and practical decision-making. I emphasize collaboration, clear communication, and critical reflection as core components of filmmaking practice.

I am particularly interested in helping students build a strong authorial voice while remaining responsive to real-world constraints. My courses integrate theory and hands-on production, supporting students in making work that is conceptually grounded, emotionally precise, and formally coherent.

Research Interests

Nicola Yunrui Li is a writer and director from China whose films examine intimacy, family, and the emotional costs of change. Working with restrained realism and open-ended storytelling, she focuses on moments when relationships shift, when love is redefined, and when life offers no clear answers. Her characters often face choices that cannot be proven “right,” and her work is interested in what remains afterward, the daily work of living with uncertainty, grief, desire, and responsibility.

Her research focuses on narrative filmmaking as a form of emotional inquiry, with particular attention to unresolved human experiences. Through practice-based research, she explores how cinematic form, particularly performance, sound, duration, and observational structures, can represent emotional complexity without imposing closure or moral certainty. More broadly, she is interested in the intersection between personal narrative and social context, especially how private emotional life is shaped by family structures, migration, cultural memory, and life-stage transitions.

Professional Service

Nicola Yunrui Li actively contributes to departmental and institutional service. She serves on the Film Studies marketing committee, where she manages and develops the department’s social media presence to support student recruitment, program visibility, and public engagement.

She also participates in faculty search processes, contributing to the evaluation and interviewing of new teaching staff. In addition, she collaborates with Watson Community College on a learning outside of the classroom project, working with students and faculty to design experiential learning opportunities that connect academic coursework with real-world creative practice.

She is committed to mentoring students through academic advising, project supervision, and professional development, providing guidance on portfolios, festival submissions, and graduate school applications. Through these service roles, she supports departmental growth, interdisciplinary collaboration, and student-centered educational initiatives.

Honors & Awards

Windward (2025) - assistant director, post-production supervisor
Screened at 63rd New York Film Festival

PEACOCK (2020) - writer, director
2020 Canada Shorts - Canadian & International Short Film Fest., International Short — Awards Winner
2020 UWPG Film Festival, Most Promising Director — Awards Winner
2020 IndieX Film Fest, Best Indie Short — Nominee
2020 New York International Film Awards, NYIFA Best Short Film — Finalist