Hong Kong to shop pics
Cinemart branches out with new market for Asian fare
Backed by the Hong Kong regional government's newly established Film Development Fund aimed at revitalizing the local film industry, the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) will present a slate of the most promising new Asian pic projects involving both major names and newcomers from the region's industries.
Director of the event is Wouter Barendrecht, a Hong Kong-based partner in international film sales company Fortissimo Film Sales and its Asian arm, Lighthouse Entertainment Group. Development manager is veteran Hong Kong fest staffer Ivy Ho. Hong Kong action superstar Jackie Chan is serving as honorary president for the debut edition.
While modeled closely after the Rotterdam original and similar events, such as the Pusan fest project workshop and San Francisco's Intl. Film Financing Conference (IFFCON), which focuses mainly on U.S. indie product, HAF aims to represent a significantly wider range of productions.
"Unlike Rotterdam and Pusan, which concentrate on arthouse films and auteur-driven projects, we are not afraid of big commercial features with budgets of $10 million or more," Barendrecht told Daily Variety. "We also can take projects without a director attached that often are producer- or star-driven.
HAF's first slate of 23 features includes films from established names like Hong Kong's Stanley Kwan and Clara Law and Taiwan's Tsai Ming-liang. Producers represented include Taiwan's Peggy Chiao; Silvia Chang and director-producer Fruit Chan, both from Hong Kong; and Beijing-based U.S. producer Peter Loehr, whose "Shower" goes out through Sony Pictures Classics later this year.
