Domee Shi

Domee Shi (; ; born 8 September 1989) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. She directed the 2018 short film Bao and the 2022 feature film Turning Red, becoming the first woman to direct a short film and then the first woman with sole director's credit on a feature film for Pixar. Shi began working for Pixar in 2011 as a storyboard artist, contributing to multiple films, including Inside Out (2015), Incredibles 2 (2018), and Toy Story 4 (2019). For Bao, Shi won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 91st Academy Awards, and also earned nominations for the 43rd Annie Awards, the International Online Cinema Awards, and the Tribeca Film Festival. Early life Shi was born on 8 September 1989 in Chongqing, Sichuan (now Chongqing municipality) as an only child before immigrating to Canada at the age of two with her parents. She spent six months in Newfoundland before moving to Toronto, where she grew up learning about art from her father. She was influenced by her father, who had been a college professor of fine arts and a landscape painter in China. Shi took inspiration and guidance from her mother's personality when directing Bao. Shi recalls that "My Chinese mom was always making sure I never wandered away too far, that I was safe." During her childhood, Shi watched many Studio Ghibli and Disney films, which exposed her to Asian cinema and animation.