Oh Jiin

After quitting, she received a Fulbright grant—just as the pandemic hit. With her funding at risk if she delayed departure, she left for the U.S., only to realize even $40K from Fulbright didn’t cover art-school tuition. Probably by pandemic luck, Columbia University added $20K, and she enrolled.

At the time, Spielberg was the full extent of her film literacy. She thought film school meant California, not New York, and arrived in the city barely knowing Jarmusch, Allen, or Scorsese. NYC was locked down: no casting, no rentals, only hostility and a surge of Asian hate crimes. Determined not to waste her scholarship, she grabbed a digital camera, cast herself, and made ULIM (2021), a scrappy autobiographical short about pandemic student life.

When the world reopened, she realized comedy was her natural ground. Asked “Why comedy?” she compares it to the Hogwarts Sorting Hat—the genre chooses you.

Her short Say Something (2023), about a teenager faking speak-in-tongues to impress her church crush, screened and won prizes at festivals worldwide. Her thesis film SPEEDY! (2025), about a nine-year-old chasing speed-reading glory in 1980s Korea, was backed by Indian Paintbrush Productions (of Wes Anderson fame). It premiered at the 2025 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival and is now touring the festival circuit.