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 from a local laserdisc store. As a teenager, he then discovered that movies went beyond entertainment when he was introduced to films from the Criterion Collection, which gave him a new appreciation for the medium.

After college, Sheldon made a short documentary in which he interviewed his father and learned of his parents’ harrowing journey out of Vietnam as part of the Chinese diaspora of boat people who fled 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 crime thriller that premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Fest; Demba - a Senegalese drama that premiered at the 2024 Berlinale; Enmity Djinn - the Mauritanian chapter of Netflix’s African Folktales Reimagined anthology; Nafi’s Father - Senegal’s official entry to the 2021 Oscars; and Kannappa - an upcoming South Indian mythological epic filmed in New Zealand.

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 immersing in new cultures and exploring history, and continues to seek stories that are evocative, personal, and emotionally resonant.

He is also a proud dad of an 8-year-old rescue pug named Muzzy.

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