Corpse Fishing by Jean Liu qualifies for the 97th Academy® Awards

Jean Liu’s haunting Corpse Fishing qualifies for the 97th Academy® Awards

Los Angeles, CA (February 6, 2025). Jean Liu’s evocative short Corpse Fishing explores grief and longing in a marginalized community. Set in southern China, this enigmatic short follows a despairing girl named Yan as she strikes a deal with a stranger to go fishing for bodies in a desperate attempt to find her missing father. This incredible story is an inspiration from Wei Xinpeng. A real ‘corpse fisherman’ who scans the river looking for cadavers which he then sells back to grieving families.

This film is a presentation at the Tribeca Film Festival. It is part of the official selection at HollyShorts, and is made as part of Indeed’s Rising Voices program. An initiative set up to discover, invest in and share stories created by BIPOC filmmakers and storytellers. Rising Voices is a creation in collaboration with Lena Waithe, Hillman Grad Productions, and 271 Films. This amazing short is a qualification to be a consideration for the 2025 Oscars®.

Logline: In search of closure, a desperate teenager strikes a deal to go fishing for corpses with a stranger.

Jean is a filmmaker from the UK and China. She specializes in telling stories about personalities and subcultures that put a highly individual stamp on issues of broader interest. Her portrait-style films have featured at SXSW, Slamdance and numerous other film festivals internationally and have appeared on sites such as the BBC and NOWNESS. Jean also has a background in immersive storytelling. She has produced several large scale immersive media experiences; combining live performance, film, and technology for live audiences in the hundreds. Jean is a graduate of USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program, where she was a Pigott/BAFTA scholar. 

Sarah Park is a Los Angeles based producer from Seoul, Korea. Her award-winning films have traveled the festival circuit internationally. Notable producing works include SMOKING TIGERS and SWEETWATER AQUARIUM. She is currently producing a feature film and also developing an episodic series in the US.

This phenomenal film has qualified for the 2025 Oscars®.

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