Hao Zhou Short Films

Hao Zhou is an exciting and prolific filmmaker who is emerging to great acclaim on the international film festival circuit. This program of Zhou’s most recent short films blends fiction and documentary techniques while telling stories about queer people in often overlooked regions like the Midwest. Correct Me If I’m Wrong (2025), Zhou’s latest short (produced with support from the Wex’s Moving Image Studio), shows them at home in Southwestern China as their family performs a series of home remedies and spiritual rituals to attempt to purge their gender-fluid identity. See Correct Me If I’m Wrong and more as we welcome Zhou to their new role as an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts. (program approx. 90 mins., digital video)

About the filmmaker

Hao Zhou is a filmmaker from Southwestern China currently based in Ohio. Exploring queer themes and overlooked spaces, Zhou’s films have been screened at the Berlinale, Locarno, SXSW, Hot Docs, Hong Kong, BlackStar, Images Festival, and Frameline, among other international film festivals. In 2021, Zhou made a Student Academy Award–winning short film, Frozen Out. In 2023, Zhou's short doc Here, Hopefully was distributed by PBS, won Best Short at Doc10, and is among Vimeo’s 2024 Best of Staff Picks. In 2024, Zhou's short documentary Wouldn't Make It Any Other Way premiered at SXSW and won jury prizes at Aspen Shortsfest, Indy Shorts, IFFBoston, and DOXA. An alum of Cannes’ Résidence, Berlinale Talents, and Talents Tokyo, Zhou has made work with funding from ITVS, IF/Then × Hulu, Firelight Media/CAAM, Forecast, Talents Tokyo/TOKYO FILMeX, Art With Impact, Frameline, and other organizations. Currently Zhou is in production and postproduction on multiple projects, both narrative and nonfiction.