Jakarta-born Monica Vanesa Tedja (1991) is a non-binary Indonesian filmmaker of Chinese descent, whose films pose questions around minority identity and black and white morality, through intimate character work and playfulness.

Monica's career took off when one of their earliest shorts, HOW TO MAKE A PERFECT XMAS EVE (2013), won Best Film in the XXI Short Film Festival. This was followed by SLEEP TIGHT, MARIA (2015) winning Best Film in France Film Festival in Indonesia. These films solidified their status as one of Indonesia's rising independent non-male filmmakers, unafraid to turn their lens onto narratives seldom explored in the country.

Monica moved to Berlin in 2015 to pursue an MA in Film Directing at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. Their thesis film, DEAR TO ME (2021), looks at religion and sexuality through the story of a young man on a family vacation. This marked a significant transition in their approach, showing the melancholia of maturing and the tensions of coming of age. It was nominated for the category Michael-Ballhaus-Prize (cinematography) and has won the best short and animation film category at First Steps Awards 2021 - an award for young talents in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It has also been screened in Open Doors Screening in Locarno Film Festival 2021 and numerous festivals internationally.

Since then, they have also been working steadily to develop their deeply personal debut feature project, DEAR FAMILY, which explores the theme of loyalty at the intersection of queerness, hidden desires, diasporic life and unspoken truths in Asian family dynamics. They have been participating in film labs since summer 2021, from Locarno Open Doors, SGIFF Film Lab, Full Circle Lab Philippines, Busan Asian Film School (AFiS), to private script consultation with Franz Rodenkirchen.

Their recent short, MY THERAPIST SAID, I AM FULL OF SADNESS (2024), was an intimate documentary capturing their relationship with their biological family in Jakarta, chosen family in Berlin, and their journey of self-love. The short film premiered at DOK Leipzig 2024 and continued to screen at Singapore International Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, and Hot Docs, among others.