Oscar-winning filmmaker Ruby Yang appointed as HKU Journalism and Media Studies Centre director

Academy award-winning director Ruby Yang will officially start her two-year tenure as the Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC) Director at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) starting Monday (Jul 1). 

According to an internal email within the university, Yang’s appointment was approved by university president Zhang Xiang.

Yang has been the interim director of JMSC since last year.

The email said Yang has been playing a pivotal role in leading the Centre’s development and consolidating the Centre’s position in the past year as interim director, and the university believes that the Centre will have continuous success under her leadership.

"Her efforts as a filmmaker and teacher have inspired a new generation of journalism students and documentary filmmakers, elevating the art of storytelling and documentary filmmaking in Hong Kong and beyond," according to JMSC's website.

Yang was born in Hong Kong and has spent the past 35 years of her career working in the USA, Beijing, and Hong Kong. She works in both documentary and dramatic films, and her 2006 short documentary "The Blood of Yingzhou District" - a film about the tainted blood AIDS crisis in mainland China, has earned her the 2007 Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject.

Her work also received a number of Academy Award and Emmy nominations, as well as numerous international awards such as the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Journalism Award, FilmAid Asia’s Humanitarian Award, and the Global Health Council Media Award.