Peiqi Peng tells socially conscious female and queer stories through genre-bending forms, combining gore, fantasy, and absurdist elements with naturalistic sensibilities. Her recent short, A Roadside Banquet, went to a dozen Oscar-Qualifying film festivals, including the prestigious FIRST International Film Festival—often seen as the ‘Chinese Sundance’ —and was broadcast on KCET/PBS. She was nominated at the YDA Awards, and her short was screened at the American Pavilion showcase at Cannes 2024. Peng is a Chinese director living in LA, with a BFA in Media Arts Production & Post-Colonial Studies from Emerson College and a MFA in Directing from the American Film Institute. A child fantasy writer who later studied Sociology. Before she became a director, Peng did script development work for FilmNation, Partizan, and Imagine Entertainment. She is a 2025 Film Independent Project Involve directing fellow.