Betsy Tsai grew up mostly in Silicon Valley, California, and for some years in Brussels, Belgium. She is a directing alumna from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, & Television, and she also studied English Literature and International Conflict Resolution.

Betsy works now as a director, producer, and writer, based in Los Angeles. She is a co-producer with Walking Iris Media, and often serves as a film festival juror, panelist, and story consultant for documentary films.
She was a staff member of the Documentary Film Program at Sundance Institute from 2015-2020.

Emigration runs in her family. She speaks French adequately and Mandarin horridly. She enjoys exploring the inherent malfunctions of human communication and her own cultural dysphoria.

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Betsy produced CONFUCIAN DREAM (Special Jury Prize, Karlovy Vary 2019) and her co-producing credits include Emmy nominee OUR TIME MACHINE (Best Cinematography, Tribeca 2019), HIDDEN LETTERS (Oscars® Shortlist 2023) and AFTER THE RAIN (Special Jury Award, Doc NYC 2021). From 2015-2020, she was a staff member of the Documentary Film Program at Sundance Institute, where she provided managerial and curatorial support for the Sundance Labs and the Sundance Documentary Fund, which awards over $1.5 million in grants to feature documentaries globally.

Prior to Sundance, Betsy worked at The Olive Tree Initiative, an education non-profit that provides experiential learning for conflict resolution students studying the Middle East and the South Caucasus. She has directed award-winning scripted and documentary short films, and her feature screenplay, GREEN ISLAND SERENADE, was selected for the Nostos Screenwriting Workshop and is a Los Angeles Chinese Film Festival Screenwriting Competition finalist.

Betsy often travels to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she is developing her first hybrid film.