Jessica Kingdon is a Chinese-American documentary director/producer named one of “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine and selected for the DOC NYC “40 Under 40” list. She is currently directing Untitled Animal Project, supported by Sandbox Films and Impact Partners. Her first documentary feature, ASCENSION登楼叹 (2021), won a nomination at the 94th Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Feature category as well as Best Documentary at the Tribeca Festival and Hamptons International Film Festival. The film has received nominations from the the DGA Awards, Spirit Awards, the Gotham and the International Documentary Association along with five Cinema Eye nominations and six Critic’s Choice nominations. Her award-winning short COMMODITY CITY (2017) is an observational documentary about the world’s largest wholesale mall in Yiwu, China and played at over 50 film festivals. She co-directed the short IT'S COMING! (2020), and ROUTINE ISLAND (2019). Her work has been supported by organizations including SFFILM, Chicken & Egg, Cinereach, Sundance, Field of Vision, and Firelight Media. Jessica has served in producorial roles on Tania Cypriano’s BORN TO BE (NYFF 2019), Nathan Truesdell’s THE WATER SLIDE (True/False 2018), and Johnny Ma’s OLD STONE (Berlinale 2016). Residencies include UnionDocs, MacDowell and Yaddo. She is a member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective and Brown Girls Doc Mafia.

Media appearances