‘It was strange and seductive’: film director Clara Law on finding home in Australia

The Hong Kong-raised Melbourne film-maker, who has two movies screening at Sydney film festival, reflects on the farcical' immigrant experience and being a pioneer of Asian Australian cinema

When Clara Law's film Floating Life opened in Australian cinemas in 1996, the Hong Kong-raised, Melbourne-based writer-director did not expect it to pack such a strong cultural punch.

Along with being one of few local films to deal with the Asian migrant experience, Floating Life made history as Australia's first-ever submission in the best foreign language film category at the Academy Awards, and ignited a new generation of Asian Australian film-makers.