Ang Lee at the MOCA event "Words and Pictures: Chinese American Screenwriters Talk Movies (feat. Ang Lee & Tony Chan)"

Ang Lee is an Academy Award-winning Taiwanese film director and screenwriter. Lee’s father pressured him from a young age to become a serious academic, but Lee ultimately fell in love with drama and the arts while in college. He pursued a master’s degree in film production at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, alongside classmate and celebrated fellow director Spike Lee. After six discouraging years of unemployment, Lee’s screenplays caught the attention of a major Chinese studio, who helped Lee produce his first feature film Pushing Hands (1991). With his second feature, The Wedding Banquet (1993), Lee received further recognition for his work as well as several award nominations and wins from international festivals and organizations, including a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards. Lee’s first English-language film, Sense and Sensibility (1995), was nominated for seven Academy Awards, and in 1999, Lee breathed new life into the wuxia genre with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In 2005, Lee received critical acclaim and Best Picture accolades worldwide for the cultural phenomenon Brokeback Mountain. This included historic wins at the Academy Awards, for which Lee became the first director of color to win in the Best Director category in the ceremony’s history. He solidified this distinction with a second win in the Best Director category, among wins in other categories, for his film Life of Pi (2012). The emotional charge of Lee’s films and Lee’s ability to translate deep, repressed feelings into visual artistry have earned him international and historic acclaim. In 2008, MOCA honored Ang Lee at its annual Legacy Gala Award ceremony.