Xueni Yang is a writer-director, movement practitioner, and performer working across film and embodied practice. Born in Beijing, raised in the U.S., and now based in Europe, her work is shaped by spatial and physical awareness, rhythm, and presence, exploring how internal states and relational tension surface through restrained movement, gesture, and silence.
Her films often move between realism and quiet abstraction, favoring atmosphere and duration over explicit exposition. Rather than foregrounding plot-driven narration, Xueni’s cinematic language emphasizes emotional rhythm, spatial awareness, and subtle shifts that unfold within stillness. This sensibility is closely informed by her long-term training in classical Chinese dance and contemporary movement practice.
Alongside her filmmaking, Xueni maintains an independent movement practice in Prague, where she regularly leads Movement for Actors workshops. Her work focuses on breath-initiated movement, internal rhythm, and sustained physical clarity, supporting performers in maintaining presence and intention within minimal, slow, or emotionally contained performance contexts, particularly for camera.
In addition to her local practice, Xueni has been invited to present and facilitate her movement-based work within international professional contexts, including conferences organized by the International University Global Theatre Experience (IUGTE) in collaboration with the New International Performing Arts Institute (NIPAI) and ArtUniverse Agency. Within these settings, she contributes both artistic content and structural facilitation, working as an invited presenter and opening host.
Her short film Fir (杉) received a Czech Lion Award nomination for Best Student Film and has since screened internationally and been selected for curated platforms and streaming. In 2026, Xueni will serve as a jury member for the Women’s Voices Now Film Festival, reflecting her ongoing engagement with authorship, artistic judgment, and film evaluation within international contexts.
Xueni continues to develop film and performance projects while working internationally across directing, movement practice, and professional training contexts.
Filmography
2025 Deadly Alive. Feature. Early Development.
2025 The Last Day of July. Short. Writer-director. Currently at funding stage.
2023 Fir. Writer, director, editor. Nomination of the Best Student Film Award at Czech Lion Awards held by Czech Film and Television Academy (ČFTA).
2022 The Bus Stop Where Once We Were. Writer, director, editor.
2022 Red Balloon, 35mm short film. Writer, director, editor.
2021 Hush, dance short film. Writer, director, producer. Semi-Finalist at Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival 2022.
2020 "Mother", Sci-fi short film. Writer, director. Official Selection of Beverly Hills Film Festival 2021
2019 Fishbowl, 16mm short film. Writer, director. Best Student Film of ARFF Film Festival(Amsterdam) 2021
