production design & creative direction
cv download
studio@abbeylings.com
Her work is defined by emotionally grounded, character-led environments that blend formalist control with emergent naturalism, creating poetic, textured worlds shaped by psychology, restrained symbolism, and lived-in detail.
Abbey won an international Webby Award for Best Art Direction (People’s Voice, Film/TV) 2025 for the Powerhouse Museum’s short To Become A Lion (dir. David Ma, The Powerhouse Museum), which was acquired by New York Times Op-Docs. For her work on Eat Up! (dir. Yuxin Cao), she was nominated for Best Emerging Production Designer 2025 by the Australian Production Designers Guild.
The films she has production designed have garnered critical acclaim. The Eviction (dir. Rebecca Metcalf) recently won Best Australian Short at Melbourne International Film Festival and was a Dendy Awards finalist for Best Australian Shorts at Sydney Film Festival. Umbrella Entertainment’s’ short The Shirt Off Your Back (dir. David Robinson-Smith), was nominated for Best Short Film at the AACTAs (2026), and featured in the core programming at MIFF, SFF, Adelaide Film Festival, BeyondFest in LA among many others. Agoge (dir. Ven Gialouris), had its US premiere at Palm Springs International ShortFest after its Flickerfest debut. Eat Up! screened at Flickerfest, Heart of Gold International Film Festival, and Brooklyn SciFi Film Festival. A Living Instrument (dir. Hyun Lee) was acquired for global streaming by Nowness.
Her broader art department experience includes working under Oscar-winning designers Colin Gibson and Jacinta Leong on Furiosa (Warner Bros), and on productions including Year Of (Stan), Who Do You Think You Are Australia (SBS/Warner Bros Discovery), and music videos for Ed Sheeran.
Her upcoming projects include feature film French Girls (dir. Hyun Lee, prod. Nash Edgerton & Georgia Noe), currently in post-production; and the shorts Spiders On My Lashline (dir. Grace Tan), So Beautiful (dir. Sofya Gollan), and Echo Point (dir. Adam Daniel).
Alongside her film work, Abbey consults independently as a creative director for brands, drawing on her previous background working at global consultancy Bain & Co.
Having migrated to Australia in 2015 from an old border town in Hong Kong, Abbey brings a cross-cultural sensitivity to her design work, and is fluent in English, Cantonese, and professional Mandarin. She holds an MA in Production Design from AFTRS, a GradDip in Environmental Science from the University of Sydney, and a BA in International Relations & Environmental Philosophy from Swinburne University (as a DFAT New Colombo Plan Scholar).
Abbey is an accredited member of the International Production Designers Collective and is available for projects internationally.
Press
Interview with SBS Cantonese