New York—Narrative short film “Iron Hands” , directed by Johnson Cheng, was nominated for the Student Visionary award at the 16th Annual Tribeca Film Festival taking place in New York from April 19 to 30.
“Iron Hands” features a twelve-year old girl who tries out for the traditionally all-male Chinese youth Olympic weightlifting team. As she prepares for her final test, she makes an unlikely connection with the weightlifting gym’s reclusive groundskeeper.
Tribeca Film Festival, founded in 2002, receives thousands of submission each year from filmmakers around the world.
Johnson, an NYC-based Chinese American screenwriter and motion picture director, began his career as an intern at PIXAR, and is credited on feature films such as “Monsters University” and “The Book of Life”. He also worked as an Assistant Editor on DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda 3”.
Johnson is a member the Motion Picture Editors Guild and the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective Writers Workshop.
Johnson, born and raised in Diamond Bar, California, is currently working on his graduate program at Columbia University.
