Clara Law Cheuk-yiu was born in 1957 in Macau. She is a graduate of The University of Hong Kong with a degree in English Literature. From 1982 to 1985, she studied directing and screenwriting at the National Film and Television School in the United Kingdom. Her graduation film, They Say the Moon is Fuller Here (1985), won the Silver Plague at the Chicago International Film Festival. After returning to Hong Kong in 1985, she joined the drama unit of Radio Television Hong Kong’s (RTHK) television division and directed over twenty single-episode dramas.
Law turned her sights on film in 1988 and directed her first dramatic feature The Other Half and the Other Half. She then directed the Lillian Lee Pik-wah-scripted The Reincarnation of Golden Lotus the following year. In 1992, she won the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno Film Festival and the European Art Theatres Association’s Best Picture award with Autumn Moon. Her 1993 period drama Temptation of a Monk was selected to compete for the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival and won Best Picture at the Cr�teil International Women’s Film Festival in France.
In 1995, Law relocated to Australia with her husband Eddie Fong while continuing her filmmaking career. Her 1996 film Floating Life was awarded the Silver Leopard at Locarno while collecting Grand Prix Asturias and Best Director prizes at Gij�n International Film Festival. While 2000’s The Goddess of 1967 won Law the Best Director award at the Chicago Film Festival, a young Rose Byrne—then a little known Australian actress—was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at Venice for her performance in the film. Letters to Ali, Law’s 2004 documentary about the life of a young asylum seeker in Australia, was selected as one of the 100 greatest films in the history of Australian cinema. She eventually returned to Chinese-language cinema with the Hong Kong- Chinese production Like a Dream (2009).
Law’s husband, Eddie Fong, is also her long time collaborator. Most of her films were written and produced by Fong. In 2010, they made the short film Red Earth.
