The 48th Hong Kong International Film Festival () took place from 28 March to 8 April 2024.

Fruit Chan Fruit Chan Gor (; born 15 April 1959) is a Hong Kong filmmaker who is best known for his style of film reflecting the everyday life of Demographics of Hong Kong, Hong Kong people. He is well known for using amateur actors (such as Sam Lee (ac ...

was selected as the Filmmaker in Focus for this edition and masterclasses led by

Víctor Erice Víctor Erice Aras (; born 30 June 1940) is a Spanish film director. He is best known for his first two feature fiction films, '' The Spirit of the Beehive'' (1973), which many regard as one of the greatest Spanish films ever made, and '' El Sur' ...

and

Martin McDonagh Martin Faranan McDonagh ( ; born 26 March 1970) is a British-Irish playwright and filmmaker. He is known for his Absurdism, absurdist Black comedy, dark humour which often challenges the modern theatre aesthetic. He has won List of awards and no ...

were featured. The festival opened with the Hong Kong LGBTQ-themed drama '' All Shall Be Well'' by

Ray Yeung Ray Yeung () is a Hong Kong screenwriter and independent film director. After graduating with a law degree and practicing law for two years, Yeung found his job tedious and decided to switch career paths to become a director. Yeung's films freque ...

and closed with the Japanese drama ''All The Long Nights'' by Miyake Sho. This year, 190 films from 62 countries were screened, including five world premieres, six international premieres, and sixty-four Asian premieres.

Karena Lam Karena Lam (; born 17 August 1978) is a Taiwanese Canadian actress and singer based in Taiwan and Hong Kong. In October 1995, Lam released her debut album ''Karena'' (有點想). In 2015, she won the Best Actress award at the Golden Horse ...

was chosen as the new ambassador of the HKIFF starting this edition, succeeding

Aaron Kwok Aaron Kwok Fu-shing (born 26 October 1965) is a Hong Kong singer, dancer, and actor, known as one of Hong Kong's "Four Heavenly Kings". Active since the 1980s, he has released over 30 studio albums in Cantonese and Mandarin, mostly in the danc ...

, who served for the past five years.

Background

The theme of the 48th Hong Kong International Film Festival is "A Portal to Another World". The festival's poster features a Hong Kong street with neon signs as the backdrop, while a brightly colored film screen is placed in the center, reflecting the theme of reimagining Hong Kong through a time portal.

was named the new ambassador of the

Hong Kong International Film Festival The Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) is one of Asia's oldest international film festivals. Founded in 1976, the festival features different movies and filmmakers from different countries, and takes place in Hong Kong. HKIFF screens ...

in January 2024 starting from this edition, succeeding

, who served for the past five years. Lam also served as one of the jurors for the Firebird Awards. She is the second woman to hold this position and the first female ambassador in over a decade (since

Miriam Yeung Miriam Yeung Chin-wah (born 3 February 1974) is a Hong Kong singer and actress. As of 2020, she has released more than 35 albums and has starred in more than 40 films. In 2012, Yeung won the Award for Best Actress at the 32nd Hong Kong Film Awar ...

in 2011), and she expressed a commitment to advocating for women's rights in the film industry, as well as promoting Hong Kong's cultural scene, which has faced challenges since the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and the rise of streaming services.

was announced as the Filmmaker in Focus for the festival on 2 February 2024. Albert Lee, the executive director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society, explained that Chan was chosen for his creative and pioneering vision in Hong Kong genre filmmaking. British-Irish filmmaker

and Spanish director

were also announced as features in the Masterclass section later that month, and both would be presenting at the festival in person. A full lineup and the titles of the competitive sections were revealed on 8 March. Other notable guests at the festival included Iranian actress

Zar Amir Ebrahimi Zahra Amir Ebrahimi (; born 9 July 1981), known professionally as Zar Amir Ebrahimi (, ), is an Iranian and French actress, producer and director. She rose to international prominence for her performance as journalist Arezoo Rahimi in the crime ...

, Japanese musician

Eiko Ishibashi is a Japanese singer-songwriter and musician. She has frequently worked with Jim O'Rourke (musician), Jim O'Rourke, with O'Rourke producing several of her albums and Ishibashi playing on his album Simple Songs (Jim O'Rourke album), Simple Song ...

, American cartoonist

Bill Plympton Bill Plympton (born April 30, 1946) is an American animator, graphic designer, cartoonist, and filmmaker best known for his 1987 Academy Award–nominated animated short '' Your Face'' and his series of shorts featuring a dog character starting ...

, Indian documentary filmmaker

Anand Patwardhan Anand Patwardhan (; born 18 February 1950) is an Indian documentary filmmaker known for his socio-political, human rights-oriented films. Some of his films explore the rise of religious fundamentalism, sectarianism and casteism in India, while o ...

, Taiwanese filmmaker

Tsai Ming-liang Tsai Ming-liang (; born 27 October 1957) is a Malaysian filmmaker based in Taiwan. Tsai has written and directed 11 feature films, many short films, and television films. He is one of the most celebrated "Second New Wave" film directors of T ...

, Japanese filmmakers

Kazuhiro Soda is a Japanese documentary filmmaker and author based in New York City. He is known for his observational method of documentary filmmaking. Soda obtained a degree in religious studies from the University of Tokyo in 1993 and a BFA in filmmaking ...

Shusuke Kaneko is a Japanese filmmaker. Life and career Shūsuke Kaneko was born in Tokyo on June 8, 1955. According to the biography on his official website Kaneko was interested in science fiction, particularly Godzilla and Gamera films, from a young age. H ...

, and Miyake Sho, as well as Japanese actors

Masaki Okada is a Japanese actor. Personal life On November 19, 2024, Okada and actress Mitsuki Takahata jointly announced through the media that they are getting married. Filmography Films * ''The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck and God in a Coin Locke ...

and

Kaya Kiyohara is a Japanese actress, model and singer. She won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 45th Japan Academy Film Prize for the film ''In The Wake''. Biography Born in Osaka, Kiyohara joined Amuse Inc. in 2014. She has since starred in a numbe ...

, and Taiwanese actor

Greg Hsu Hsu Kuang-han ( zh, c=, poj=Khó͘ Kong-hàn, p=Xǔ Guānghàn, t=許光漢; born October 31, 1990), known professionally as Greg Hsu and Greg Han, is a Taiwanese actor and singer. He was nominated for two Golden Bell Awards for his roles in t ...

. Ishibashi also gave a live performance on 30 March. The film festival opened on 28 March 2024 at the

Hong Kong Cultural Centre The Hong Kong Cultural Centre (HKCC, ) is a public multipurpose performance facility in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. Located at Salisbury Road, it was built by the former Urban Council and, since 2000, has been administered by the Leisure a ...

with the Hong Kong LGBTQ-themed drama '' All Shall Be Well'', directed by

. Events took place at various venues, including the Hong Kong Cultural Centre,

Hong Kong Arts Centre Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC; ) is a non-profit arts institution and art museum established in 1977. It promotes contemporary performing arts, visual arts, film and video arts. It also provides arts education. Its rival is the government-managed ...

Hong Kong City Hall Hong Kong City Hall (HKCH, ) is a building located at Edinburgh Place, Central, Hong Kong, Central, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. In the 19th century, the British founded the Victoria, Hong Kong, City of Victoria in the present-day Centra ...

, M+,

iSQUARE iSQUARE () is a 31-storey shopping centre located at 63 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong, on the site of the former Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hyatt Regency Hotel. It was developed by, and is now owned by, Associ ...

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

, and Elements. A total of 190 films from 62 countries were screened, featuring five world premieres, six international premieres, and sixty-four Asian premieres. Ticket prices ranged from $55 HKD for weekday matinee screenings to $5,000 HKD for a VIP pass to the festival. The film festival was part of the

Entertainment Expo Hong Kong Entertainment Expo Hong Kong is an event held by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The following are part of the Entertainment Expo HK:Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FILMART)*Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) *Hong Kong Dig ...

, which celebrated its 20th anniversary, featuring events such as the

17th Asian Film Awards The 17th Asian Film Awards was held on March 10, 2024 at the Xiqu Centre, Hong Kong. The nominations were announced on January 12, 2024. The winners were announced on March 10, 2024 with '' Evil Does Not Exist'' winning the best film award. Jur ...

and the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards taking place concurrently. A new section, the CAA China Genre Initiative Projects, was added to the Asia Financing Forum, Hong Kong International Film Festival's project market. The Malaysian-Singaporean-Taiwanese historical drama '' Snow in Midsummer'' by Chong Keat Aun won the Firebird Award for the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese-language), while the Danish-Swedish psychological thriller ''

Sons A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...

'' by Gustav Möller won the Firebird Award for the Young Cinema Competition (World). The Austrian documentary ''

Favoriten Favoriten (; ), the 10th district of Vienna, Austria (), is located south of the central districts. It is south of Innere Stadt, Wieden and Margareten. Favoriten is a heavily populated urban area with many residential buildings, but also la ...

'' by

Ruth Beckermann Ruth Beckermann (born 1952) is an Austrian filmmaker and writer, who lives and works in Vienna and Paris. Her films have been shown at prestigious festivals, and ''Paper Bridge'' and ''East of War'' won several major awards. Early life and e ...

received the Firebird Award for Documentary Competition. The Taiwanese film ''A Journey in Spring'' by Wang Ping-wen and Peng Tsz-hui won the

FIPRESCI Prize The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for ''Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique'') is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the worl ...

. The festival closed with the Japanese drama ''All The Long Nights'' by Miyake Sho on 8 April.

Jury

The jury of the Firebird Awards comprises:

Young Cinema Competition (Chinese-language)

, Hong Kong filmmaker *

, Hong Kong actress * Zhang Xianmin, Chinese film scholar and artistic director

Young Cinema Competition (World)

, Iranian actress *

Lila Avilés Lila Avilés (born in 1982) is a Mexican film director, screenwriter, actress and producer. Life and career Born in Mexico City, Avilés studied scenic arts with Ximena Escalante and José Caballero, and film scriptwriting with Beatriz Novaro a ...

, Mexican filmmaker *

Derek Tsang Derek Tsang Kwok-cheung (; born 8 November 1979) is a Hong Kong filmmaker and actor. The son of actor Eric Tsang, Tsang got his start in the Hong Kong film industry working for director Peter Chan after graduating from University of Toronto Sca ...

, Hong Kong filmmaker * Carlo Chatrian, former director of the

Locarno Film Festival The Locarno International Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narr ...

and

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

Documentary Competition

* Lea Glob, Danish documentary filmmaker * Du Haibin, Chinese documentary filmmaker * Chen Wanling, former programme director of the Taiwan International Documentary Festival

Program sections

Opening and closing films

The following films were selected as the opening and closing features of the film festival, marking the Asian premiere of both:

Gala Presentation

The following films have been selected for screening in the Gala Presentation section, marking the world premiere of Ho Miu Ki's '' Love Lies'' and the Asian premiere of

Ryusuke Hamaguchi is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. An alumnus of the University of Tokyo and the Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, he started gaining attention in his home country with the graduate film ...

's ''Gift'':

Cinephile Paradise

The following films have been selected for screening in the Cinephile Paradise section:

Firebird Awards

Young Cinema Competition (Chinese-language)

The following films were selected to compete in the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese-language) at the Firebird Awards. '' Snow in Midsummer'' emerged as the winner, with Liang Ming named Best Director for ''Carefree Days'', Lyu Xingchen named Best Actress for her performance in ''Carefree Days'', and Jason King named Best Actor for his role in ''A Journey in Spring''.

Young Cinema Competition (World)

The following films were selected to compete in the Young Cinema Competition (World) at the Firebird Awards. ''

'' emerged as the winner, with

Meryam Joobeur Meryam Joobeur is a Tunisian Canadian film director."Portrait de ...

named Best Director for ''

Who Do I Belong To ''Who Do I Belong To'' (, ) is a drama film, directed by Meryam Joobeur and slated for release in 2024. A coproduction of companies from France, Canada and Tunisia with the collaboration of Norway, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the film stars Salha Nasr ...

'', Minna Wündrich named Best Actress for her performance in '' Ivo'', and

Vangelis Mourikis Vangelis Mourikis () is a Greek film actor, who has appeared in more than thirty films since 1982. He studied in Australia where he did his first work. In the 1990s he returned to Greece and devoted himself to independent cinema. He has won seven ...

named Best Actor for his role in '' Arcadia''. A special mention was given to Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias' ''

Pepe Pepe is a pet form of the Spanish and Portuguese name José (Joseph). It is also a surname. * People Mononyms *Pepe (footballer, born 1935), Brazilian footballer José Macia *Pepe (footballer, born 1983), Brazilian-born Portuguese footballer ...

''.

Documentary Competition

The following films were selected to compete in the Young Cinema Competition (Documentary) at the Firebird Awards. ''

'' was unanimously chosen as the winner by the jury, while Wong Siu-pong received the jury prize for his work ''Obedience''.

Pan-Chinese Cinema

Filmmaker in Focus

Fruit Chan was announced to be the Filmmaker in Focus for the film festival on 2 February 2024, featuring ten of his previous works. ''

The Longest Summer ''The Longest Summer'' () is Hong Kong independent director Fruit Chan's second feature in the "1997 trilogy", first released in 1998. The first film in the trilogy is '' Made in Hong Kong''. The movie details the problem faced by a group of ...

'' was removed from the list on 8 March, with the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society stating that it was unable to locate suitable copies for screening, and Chan's 2019 film ''The Abortionist'' was presented in its place. However, ''

Ming Pao ''Ming Pao'' () is a Chinese-language newspaper published by Media Chinese International in Hong Kong. In the 1990s, ''Ming Pao'' established four overseas branches in North America; each provides independent reporting on local news and coll ...

'' noted that the Society had previously screened ''The Longest Summer'' in 2017 and 2021, while filmmaker

Tin Kai-man Tin Kai-Man, also spelled Tin Kai-mun, is a Hong Kong actor and production manager, most notable for his role in '' Shaolin Soccer''. A well-known friend of Stephen Chow, he began acting in his films with the 1994 '' Hail the Judge''. Tin also wo ...

also expressed confusion over the decision, explaining that copies of all Hong Kong films should be well-preserved in the

Hong Kong Film Archive The Hong Kong Film Archive is a public film archive collects, preserves, and screens Hong Kong films and other related materials. The archive was founded in 1993, when its Planning Office was opened by the Urban Council. It joined the Intern ...

. Chan described the decision as "pitiful", but noted that those interested in watching would find a way to do so on their own.

Chinese-language Restored Classics

Six restored contemporary classics by Chinese filmmakers were showcased at the film festival:

Masters and Auteurs

The Masters

The following films were selected for screening in the Masterclass section:

Víctor Erice: The Returning Gaze

Spanish director

was selected as the featured honoree for the festival's Masterclass tribute program, showcasing all four of his feature films throughout his filmmaking career:

Martin McDonagh: Theatre of Dark Tales

British-Irish filmmaker

was announced to lead a masterclass and career retrospective in the Masterclass section on 29 February 2024, featuring all five of his feature films:

Les Auteurs

The following films have been selected for screening in the Les Auteurs section:

Global Vision

The following films have been selected for screening in the Global Vision section:

Fantastic Beats

The following films have been selected for screening in the Fantastic Beats section:

Restored Classics

Eight restored film classics from various eras and regions were selected for showcase at the festival:

Focus

Three feature films and a short film directed by French filmmaker

Jean Eustache Jean Eustache (; 30 November 1938 – 5 November 1981) was a French film director and editor. During his short career, he completed numerous short films, in addition to a pair of highly regarded features, of which the first, '' The Mother and ...

were selected for screening in the Focus section:

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.hkiff.org.hk//, HKIFF official website 2024 in Hong Kong