HONG KONG—The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (HKIFFS) has announced 28 projects under development for the 21st Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF21).
For the first time since 2019, HAF21 will be held as a physical, in-person event from the 13th to the 15th of March at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre in conjunction with the 27th Hong Kong Film & TV Market (FILMART).
The 28 projects, which extends a variety of genres such as horror, fantasy, romance, family drama, and animation, were chosen from 244 submissions from 38 nations and regions. They comprise seven Hong Kong projects and eight HAF Film Lab projects. In addition to projects by prominent filmmakers and producers such as Arsalan AMIRI, Anthony CHEN, Fruit CHAN, Jakrawal NILTHAMRONG, LIN Yu-Hsien, NAI An, Nader SAEIVAR, Teddy Robin, and TIAN Zhuangzhuang, there are 14 by first-time directors.
Image courtesy HKIFF Industry
“We look forward to welcoming back filmmakers, industry guests, and friends from the trade media after three virtual editions of the HAF,” HKIFFS Industry Office Director Jacob WONG said. “And HAF21 will again showcase itself as an invaluable platform for new talents and upcoming projects from Asia.”
HAF21 will announce its work-in-progress (WIP) shortlist after the Chinese New Year.
HAF Film Lab Projects
HAF Film Lab offers support to new and emerging Chinese-language filmmakers through open lectures, training programmes, and one-on-one bespoke consultations. HAF21 is excited to feature eight Chinese-language projects developed by young filmmakers at last editions’ HAF Film Lab.
They include the winners of the fifth Film Lab’s three script service awards: TANG Peiyan‘s A Better Tomorrow, a coming-of-age drama produced by Anthony CHEN (Ilo Ilo); Frankie LEE‘s Kapok, a drama about a woman burdened by work and family duties who returns to her hometown to find solace, to be produced by Fruit CHAN (Three Husbands); and The Only Way Out directed by YEUNG Leung-chuen and produced by Jun LI (Drifting), about five lost souls in search of a way out.
Other Film Lab alumni include Hugo in the Pigpen by SHEN Sheng-Ting and SHIH Jing-Ting, a Taiwan-US co-production about a boy who raises a pig with a human body; GUAN Tian‘s The Poison Cat, produced by YANG Chao (Crosscurrent), is about an enslaved woman whose fate entwines with an evil spirit; FAN Ka-chun‘s Stair-away, produced by Teddy Robin (The First Girl I Loved), revolves around a courier, a father searching for his lost son, and the missing head of a girl’s corpse; and The Walking Bird by ZHANG Hanyi (HKIFF40 Firebird Award winner with Life After Life) follows two siblings on a bird hunting adventure.
“We are delighted to bring these projects from Film Lab to the developmental stages within our HAF ecosystem,” Jacob WONG said.
Stories and Adaptations
Two HAF21 projects are drawn from the filmmakers’ personal experiences, while award-winning Chinese-language novels inspire another two.
In The Fruit, produced by Marco MÜLLER, former festival director of Venice, Locarno and Pingyao, director LI Dongmei (Mama, The Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award of the Göteborg Film Festival) tracks the joy and sadness of a woman through pregnancy and miscarriage. In The Last Haven, producer-turned-director ZHANG Jun follows a woman moving back in with her parents after a divorce, only to open old wounds. ZHANG Lu (Yanagawa) produces.
Based on a novel by the late LEE Wei-Jing, The Mermaid’s Tale by Norris WONG (My Prince Edward, Hong Kong Film Awards Best New Director winner) is about a woman searching for a perfect ballroom dancing partner. While ZHAO Jin‘s directorial debut, Non-fiction Stories, adapted from WANG Zhanhei’s novel, examines the hardship of the young working class through the life of a delivery rider. NAI An (The Shadow Play) produces.
Love and Scam
Love and scam form the central theme of several HAF21 projects.
A Divorce by Jevons AU (Trivisa) looks at how a fake divorce turns real when love and trust disappear. Family of Crooks by LAI Kuo-An (whose A Fish Out of Water world premiered in Toronto) is about a family of street opera troupe feigning madness in an insurance scam. The Marriage Drive by Lawrence KAN, produced by industry veteran Cora YIM, tells the story of a couple’s marriage spanning over a decade. In ZHANG Yuxuan‘s China-Thailand-France co-production, Till Forgetfulness Do Us Part, two estranged lovers travel to Thailand to start over. Meanwhile, China’s Fifth Generation great TIAN Zhuangzhuang (The Horse Thief) joins HE Bin (The Crossing) in producing Phakpa‘s Dark Eyes, a tale of first love between a Buddhist monk and a young blind girl that transcends beliefs.
Young and Old
Several non-Chinese language projects, including two featuring resilient elderly women, are also in the mix. In White Snow by Praveen MORCHHALE (Walking with the Wind, winner at India’s National Film Awards), an old woman embarks on an arduous journey to remote villages to show her imprisoned son’s banned film. While in The Witness by Nader SAEIVAR (a co-writer of Jafar PANAHI’s 3 Faces and director of No End, which premiered in Busan), a widow refuses to succumb to political pressure in Iran and publicises everything she knows about a murder.
Pre-teens play the protagonists of Bhunte by Bikas NEUPANE, about a poor village boy in Nepal who dreams of getting a football. In Nagahama (working title) by TANIGUCHI Mio (Hiko and Vega, Grand Prize winner at Aichi International Women’s Film Festival), the friendship of a half-Japanese boy and a boyish Japanese girl leads up to the traditional Nagahama Hikiyama Festival.
Queer Stories from Southeast Asia
Skin Coat, the only animated project in the HAF21 line-up produced by Anthony CHEN for TAN Wei Keong, depicts a man donning a woman’s skin coat to enter his male lover’s village to meet his parents. In Rhizome, a Thailand-Laos-France co-production by Jakrawal NILTHAMRONG (Tokyo FILMeX Grand Prize winner Anatomy of Time), a Hmong woman who returns to Laos to become a deminer and develops intimate feelings for a Laotian volunteer.
Milestones for HAF Projects in 2022
- Kai KO’s Bad Education(HAF18, 2020) won Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Horse Film Awards in Taiwan
- YANG Lina’s Song of Spring(HAF18, 2020) won Best Actress at the Beijing International Film Festival
- LAU Kok Rui’s The Sunny Side of the Street(HAF18, 2020) won Best Leading Actor, Best New Director, and Best Original Screenplay at the Golden Horse Film Awards in Taiwan
- HUANG Ji and OTSUKA Ryuji’s Stonewalling(HAF16, 2018) world premiered at Venice’s Giornate degli Autori and won Best Screenplay at the World Film Festival of Bangkok
- Lav DIAZ’s When the Waves Are Gone(HAF14, 2016) world premiered out of competition at Venice Film Festival
HAF21 guest registration is now open to investors, festival programmers and other industry professionals through https://Industry.hkiff.org.hk/guest-registration. Once accredited, all guests can schedule one-on-one meetings with filmmakers to discuss their projects.
For more up-to-date information about HAF21, please visit their official website at https://Industry.hkiff.org.hk or head to their Facebook page.