Submissions Open for Hong Kong International Film Festival
The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society is now accepting submissions for its 38th festival, taking place from March 24 to April 7, 2014. Over 280 films from more than 50 countries were screened in the previous Hong Kong International Film Festivals.
The HKIFF screens films in the following categories: Young Cinema Competition, Documentary Competition and Short Film Competition, with Global Vision, Indie Power and Reality Bites replacing the FIPRESCI Prize and the SGINIS Award from the 37th HKIFF. The submissions process began on July 15 and will end on December 31. The requirement for movie submissions is that they were not shown in Hong Kong prior to the festival. English subtitles are also mandatory for non-English films.
The Young Cinema Competition is targeted towards filmmakers making their very first features (up to their third feature), the Documentary Competition is for documentaries that run 60 minutes or longer, and the Short Film Competition is for films under 15 minutes only. The Global Vision, Indie Power and Reality Bites categories are newly added categories for the 38th HKIFF. The Global Vision category is for new works including special programs and tributes, Indie Power for new independent and avant-garde works and Reality Bites is for new documentaries.
With a goal of “uniting the world through film,” the HKIFF aims to promote Chinese film culture. By organizing the annual film festivals, the film festival society is also committed to discovering new talent and serves as a platform for smaller films to gain recognition in the film industry.
During last year’s 37th HKIFF, nine coveted awards were given out to films that competed in five different categories. “In Bloom” by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross was a winner in two categories after wining the International Confederation of Art Cinemas Prize at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival. It won one of the three spots, earning the Firebird Award from the Young Cinema Competition category and the sole winner for the FIPRESCI Prize. Other winners include “All Apologies” and “Longing for the Rain” for the Young Cinema Competition, “Roots,” “Oh, the San Xia” and “Redemption Impossible” for the Documentary Competition, “The Patience Stone” for the SIGNIS Award while “Ship of Theseus” received a special mention in the same category, and Night Shift, Room 606 and Seong for the Short Film Competition.
Besides the HKIFF, the film society also organizes two other events in March and April: the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) and the Asian Film Awards (AFA).