Born in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles, Sheldon developed a passion for movies as a child when his dad brought home Jackie Chan films via a local laserdisc rental store. As a teenager, he discovered that movies went beyond entertainment when both his drama teacher and artist uncle recommended films from the Criterion Collection. After college, Sheldon made a short documentary in which he interviewed his father and learned of his parents’ harrowing journey as part of the Chinese diaspora of boat people who fled Vietnam in the aftermath of the war; this cemented his commitment to storytelling. Sheldon holds a BA from UC Irvine in Film Studies and an MFA from NYU Tisch in filmmaking.

CONTACT • sheldonchau@gmail.com
instagram: @sheldonchau

Sheldon has screened at top festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Venice, and Berlin. His recent credits as cinematographer include: Pooja, Sir - a Nepalese police thriller that premiered at this year’s Venice FF; Demba - a Senegalese drama that premiered at this year’s Berlinale; Nafi’s Father - Senegal’s official entry to the 2021 Oscars about two warring brothers; and Enmity Djinn - the Mauritanian chapter of Netflix’s African Folktales Reimagined anthology.

Sheldon is the winner of the ARRI Volker Bahnemann Award for Cinematography, a Visual Communications AWC Fellow, and part of the ASC Vision Mentorship program. As a director, his short film Flying Eggs was a 2021 Slamdance Film Festival selection and latest work In Max We Trust can be seen on YouTube’s Omeleto short film channel.

Sheldon has specialized in shooting internationally and balancing both large- and guerrilla-sized crews. He loves learning new cultures and history, and continues to seek stories that are evocative, personal, and emotionally resonant.

FAVORITE FILMS

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