About the director

Mickey Lai is a Malaysia-based writer-director with an MA in Film and Television Production from MetFilm School, London. Working across fiction and documentary, she directs and writes her own films while also collaborating as an assistant director, script supervisor, and editor. Raised in a multiracial and religiously diverse society, she examines how institutions like family, religion, education, and the state quietly shape bodies, choices, and silences.

Her latest short film, WAShhh (2024), premiered at the 77th Locarno Film Festival, where it won the Golden Leopard for Best International Short Film. The film has since screened at major international festivals, including Clermont-Ferrand, Red Sea, Vienna Shorts, and Golden Horse. Her documentary short A Worm, Whatever Will Be, Will Be (2022) won the Jury Award at SeaShorts, while her debut short The Cloud Is Still There (2020) had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival.