Biography

Polly is an award winning Chinese Canadian/Australian filmmaker splitting her time between Los Angeles, CA and Vancouver, Canada. Her practice encompasses Directing, Writing, Producing and Cinematography.

After working in camera departments in Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong and Australia for over a decade, and being inspired by watching director's Cameron Crowe, Jon M. Chu, and Karen Gaviola at work on set, Polly pivoted into directing. The off-kilter stories on her favorite tv show as a child "The X Files" inspired Polly to direct, write and produce her first short film, Wytch Craft, a supernatural dark comedy. The film was multi-award winning, including two Best Director awards, and screened at over 40 international film festivals and received a further 11 awards. More recently, Polly was an Associate Producer on the Wayfarer Studios feature, "A Nice Indian Boy," which screened in cinemas in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia, and she directed episodes of the new short form comedy series, "One Baby, Please!," to screen on OUTtv in Canada and Amazon Prime in the US.

Polly's advocacy for issues important to her such as mental health stigma due to a family member's later-in-life diagnosis, surviving Intimate Partner/Domestic Violence upon moving to North America, and LGBTQ+ and BIPOC topics has seen her be a public speaker at the Women in Film and Television Australia: Excellence in Craft series, where she discussed the impact of intergenerational trauma from Domestic Violence with filmmaker Jane Castle, and at the Videatur Collective and New Future's Lab, two Toronto based organizations promoting the education of under-represented emerging filmmakers in the GTA. Polly was also the Industry moderator for the Cinematic Visions Cinematography panel at 2024 GEMFest Film Festival.

Polly has been selected for several respected film programs including the US Warner Bros Discovery Access Directors Program, the Women in the Director’s Chair CAM Program, she was a Finalist for the Hallmark Make Her Mark Women’s Directing Mentorship Program and a Jury Member for the 2023 Canadian Screen Awards John Dunning Best First Feature Film Award.
- IMDb mini biography by: Polly Pierce