Diana Ward is an emerging producer originally from Australia and now based in Los Angeles. Her work draws on her Chinese Malaysian heritage, exploring the immigrant experience, belonging and diaspora in the stories she chooses to tell. In this interview, Diana speaks about how she went from a kid who was not allowed to watch film or television to becoming a producer with two short films on the festival circuit this year: Liberty—produced through Film Independent’s 2018 Project Involve program (check out the filmmakers’ production diary here), winning Best Narrative Short at SXSW 2019 and the Special Prize of the Generation 14plus International Jury at the 2019 Berlinale Film Festival—as well as 2018 Project Involve project The Coin, an animated short which premiered at SXSW 2019.
Since moving to America, Ward has produced the feature documentary Roller Dreams, which premiered at the 2017 LA Film Festival (check out our interview with Ward and director Kate Hicky about the film here) and won the Foxtel Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Sydney Film Festival as well as the Jury Award for Best Documentary at the 2018 Calgary Underground Film Festival.
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(Header: shooting Liberty on location in Miami)
