Li Yu

Li Yu (, born December 2, 1973) is a female Chinese film director and screenwriter. Li began her career in entertainment at a young age, serving as a presenter at a local TV station. After college she worked for CCTV where she directed television programs before moving on to documentaries and feature films. Directorial career Li's first feature film, Fish and Elephant, debuted in 2001. It is purportedly the first mainland Chinese feature to address the subject of lesbianism. The film encountered issues during limited international screenings and was largely unviewed by mainland Chinese audiences. Her next film, Dam Street, faced fewer problems and garnered Li the Golden Lotus from the specialty Deauville Asian Film Festival in 2006. In 2007, Li Yu's most high-profile film yet, Lost in Beijing premiered at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival. The result was over a year of controversy with the Chinese Film Bureau over both the appropriateness of that screening and of the content of the film. Though briefly screened in a heavily edited state, the film was eventually banned outright, though it was given limited releases abroad, including in the United States.