Li Cheuk-to () is a Hong Kong film curator and critic. He has served as the chief editor of Hong Kong's first film publication ' in the 1980s, as the artistic director 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 ...

from 2004 to 2018, and as the founding chairman of the

Hong Kong Film Critics Society The Hong Kong Film Critics Society (HKFCS; Traditional Chinese: 香港電影評論學會), founded in 1995, is the peak organization of film critics and professionals in Hong Kong. It is also a member of FIPRESCI. Objectives The objectives of the H ...

. He is currently the film curator of M+.

Biography

Li joined ', Hong Kong's first film publication, in the 1980s, and eventually became its chief editor. He also worked as a programmer for the

(HKIFF) since 1983, curating the Hong Kong Cinema Retrospective section. Li was among the Hong Kong film critics who signed

Edward Yang Edward Yang (; November 6, 1947 – June 29, 2007) was a Taiwanese and American filmmaker. He rose to prominence as a pioneer in the Taiwanese New Wave of the 1980s, alongside fellow auteurs Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang. Yang was reg ...

's Taiwan Film Manifesto, which marked the beginning of the

Taiwan New Cinema Taiwan New Cinema (also known as New Taiwanese Cinema or the Taiwan New Wave) was a film reform movement initiated by young Taiwanese filmmakers and directors which took place from 1982 to 1987. Taiwan New Cinema films primarily showcase a realisti ...

. After leaving the magazine, Li co-founded the

in 1995, serving as its founding chairman. As HKIFF shifted its focus to international cinema rather than solely Chinese-language films, Li took on a larger role, becoming the

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

in 2001 and then the

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

in 2004. The festival transitioned from a government-organized event to a private initiative during Li's tenure as general manager, which he cited as a need to "break from bureaucratic straitjackets", and he introduced the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum and the

Asian Film Awards The Asian Film Awards are presented annually by the Asian Film Awards Academy to recognise the excellence of the film professionals in the film industries of Asian cinema. History On January 29, 2007, Wilfred Wong, the Chairman of Hong Kon ...

during his time as artistic director. In 2001, he translated American film theorist

David Bordwell David Jay Bordwell (; July 23, 1947 – February 29, 2024) was an American film theorist and film historian. After receiving his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1973, he wrote more than fifteen volumes on the subject of cinema including ''Na ...

's ''Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment'' into Chinese, after the two had befriended each other in 1995 during Bordwell's visit to the HKIFF. Li also served on the jury for the

48th Berlin International Film Festival The 48th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 February 1998. The festival opened with the Irish film ''The Boxer'' by Jim Sheridan. Francis Ford Coppola's '' The Rainmaker'' was selected as the closing night film. T ...

in 1998, and the

39th Golden Horse Awards The 39th Golden Horse Awards (Mandarin:第39屆金馬獎) took place on November 16, 2002 at the Kaohsiung Cultural Center in Kaohsiung, Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography ...

in 2002. Starting in 2007, Li introduced the

Romanian New Wave The Romanian New Wave () is a genre of realist and often minimalist films made in Romania since the mid- aughts, starting with two award-winning shorts by two Romanian directors, namely Cristi Puiu's ''Cigarettes and Coffee'', which won the Sh ...

to the HKIFF, including dedicated sections for Romanian films in 2007, 2011, and 2017. He recognized the potential of Romania's new cinema following ''

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days ''4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days'' () is a 2007 Romanian art film written and directed by Cristian Mungiu and starring Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, and Vlad Ivanov. The film is set in Communist Romania in the final years of the Nicolae Ce ...

'' (2007), and ''

Screen International ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...

'' noted his contributions to Romanian cinema "before it was widely recognized by other festivals". In 2008, on the first anniversary of Edward Yang's passing, Li dedicated the HKIFF edition as a memorial to Yang and edited a collection of film critiques titled ''The One and Only Edward Yang''. In 2011, he participated in the Golden Horse Film Festival Society's selection of the , where he chose Yang's ''

A Brighter Summer Day ''A Brighter Summer Day'' is a 1991 Taiwanese epic coming-of-age period crime drama film directed by Edward Yang, associated with the New Taiwanese Cinema. Its English title is derived from the lyrics of Elvis Presley's 1960 rendition of " Ar ...

''. In April 2018, Li stepped down from his position at the HKIFF after the 42nd edition, announcing he would continue working as a freelancer due to approaching retirement age. In 2020, he edited and published ''Echoes of Cinematic Dreams: The Surviving Records of Wong Ain-ling'', an essay collection about the works of film scholar Wong Ain-ling. Li began serving as the film curator for the newly founded M+ museum in 2022.

Bibliography

References

{{Reflist Living people Hong Kong film critics Hong Kong writers Film curators