Chen Bowen is an award-winning filmmaker whose visually poetic narratives weave contemporary longing with the quiet grandeur of classical Chinese aesthetics. His work has screened at Cannes, Berlin, and Toronto to sustained international praise.

Raised between Suzhou and Vancouver, Chen studied comparative literature before turning to film at the age of twenty-five. His debut feature, Ink Season, unfolded entirely within a single calligraphy studio over the course of one winter, earning the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlin and signalling the arrival of a filmmaker unafraid of silence. Critics described the film as a meditation on memory rendered in brushstrokes of light.

Subsequent projects have expanded his palette without abandoning his signature restraint. Afterglow of Nanjing brought together a multi-generational cast to explore three decades of a family’s relationship with a vanishing neighbourhood, while Still Water Dialogue — his first collaboration with Étoile Muse talent Mei Lingxiao — traced the interior life of a concert pianist reconsidering her art after a sudden loss.

Chen joined Étoile Muse’s directorial roster in 2019. He is currently in pre-production on an untitled bilingual feature set along the ancient Tea Horse Road, blending documentary techniques with narrative drama.