Diao Yinan (Chinese: 刁亦男; pinyin: Diāo Yìnán; born 1969 in Xi'an, Shaanxi) is a Chinese director, screenwriter and occasional actor. He won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival for the widely acclaimed Chinese neo-noir film Black Coal, Thin Ice.^[1] Diao is considered a member of the sixth generation of Chinese film makers whose subject matter is focused on realism and stories of urban crime.^[2]

A graduate of the Central Academy of Drama in 1992, Diao has worked as a screenwriter with directors Shi Runjiu (in All the Way) and Zhang Yang (in Spicy Love Soup and Shower). Additionally, Diao has directed four films of his own, including 2003's Uniform and 2007's Night Train, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Diao is a well known producer of neo noir films.

Diao most recently directed Wild Goose Lake (2019), which received its world premiere at Cannes. Wild Goose Lake tells the story of an ostracized gangster and a woman on the run, drawing on actual events (such as the “congress of the thieves”, a summit of criminals that took place in Wuhan in 2012) and screened at the 57th New York Film. Festival^[3]