Olivé

writer・filmmaker・scholar

About

Olivé, a Tongan-American filmmaker with new roots in Japan, uses film to shine light on the under explored narratives of women and those living in hyphenated experiences to subvert expectations.With a background in education and advocacy, she also utilizes her films to champion creative and educational equity in providing artists with opportunities for narrative sovereignty and healing.An award-winning writer, editor, and producer, Olivé and her work have been supported by Cannes Docs, the Emmys, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, the Sundance Institute, Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC), Pasifika Entertainment Advancement Komiti (PEAK), and Netflix. She recently worked as a bridge between Hollywood and Japan on narrative productions like PACHINKO and ONE PIECE.Currently, Olivé is working on her directorial debut in partnership with PBS while continuing to tell and support stories that are not typically featured in Western media.

Feature Screenplays

TV Pilots

Documentaries

LET ME GO

After taking a promotion to please
his American girlfriend, a socially awkward
Japanese man struggles to understand a blossoming friendship with his younger coworker as
language barriers, cultural differences, and a dark secret begin to suffocate his relationship at home.

Read it here

ACCOLADES

Finalist, Final Draft - Big Break 2023
Winner, WritersXWriters 2023
Semifinalist, Humanitas College Drama Award 2023
Semifinalist, Outstanding Screenplays Feature Competition 2023
Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship 2023

ZION

A desperate mother enrolls her and her daughter in a religious summer camp as a last hope to save their relationship, but must escape internal and external demons to make it back home alive.

Coming Soon!

WHEN ALL IS LOST

In order to keep her family from starving to death, a housewife enters the perilous black-market industry in 1946 post-war Japan and must keep it secret from her husband -- a newly appointed Tokyo judge.

Read it here

ACCOLADES

2024 Quarterfinalist, Script2Comic (Kodansha)
2024 PEAK Writers Fellow (Netflix)
Semifinalist, Humanitas College Drama Award 2022
Quarterfinalist, Outstanding Screenplays TV Pilot Competition 2023
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards III

THIS IS NOT AN ANIME ROMANCE

When dating in Japan isn't as easy as what she's seen in Anime, a hardcore Japanese pop culture nerd seeks to write her own love story with advice from her English students, oddball coworkers, and online fans,
until her prince will come.

Read it here

ACCOLADES

Finalist, UCP - The Thousand Miles Project 2022
Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Animation Competition 2022

NOTICE ME, SENPAI!

After discovering a passion for voice acting during a chance encounter with the Anime world's biggest star--Kaji Yuki, a late-bloomer college student enters a secret contest where 500 players, all with extreme personality quirks, risk their lives to play a series of eccentric games for the chance to become the new voice of Japan that can act by Senpai Kaji Yuki's side.

Read it here

LIKE FATHER LIKE DAUGHTER

An emotionally clumsy Tongan father and daughter--and her Japanese ex-boyfriend who lives with them--spend a year having multilayered conversations and family dinners that reveal if they can accept each other for who they've become.

View here

ACCOLADES

2026 Indigenous Cinema Alliance Fellow
2025 Sundance Indigenous Intensive Grant
2025 Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC) Media Fund
2025 Cinema at Sea Pitch Forum Selectee
2024 Leanne K. Ferrer Fellowship

O LE VAI: CHANGING TIDES

After a disappointing result in Paris, a burnt out Olympian journeys to American Samoa to rediscover the role family and ancestral waters play in starting over. This is the directorial debut of Malia Masei, produced by Gabby Fa'ai'uaso and Olivé.

View here

ACCOLADES

2025 Pacific Islanders in Communications Shorts Fund

GIRLS LOVE BOYS LOVE

GIRLS LOVE BOYS LOVE is the first Boys Love (BL) documentary looking to explore the intricate facets of BL culture between Japan and America.

Coming Soon!

WINDSOR PARK: THE SINKING STREETS

WINDSOR PARK: THE SINKING STREETS, is about one of the first all-Black housing communities in North Las Vegas seeking justice after withdrawal of groundwater and geological faults caused their homes and streets to sink and crack. Although the government offered financial help to relocate, it was not enough to buy comparable homes, and many residents were financially unable to take advantage of it. They feel ignored and neglected by their government. The film questions whether this is an issue of systemic racism.

Watch it here

ACCOLADES