Filmart’s back, in person: Hong Kong movie industry hopes trade event will spark interest, investments in local productions
- Regional film networking event returns after three years as virtual trade show, attracting nearly 700 exhibitors from more than 25 countries and regions
- Local movie industry expects boost from Filmart, following string of hits including A Guilty Conscience
Buoyed by recent box office hits, Hong Kong filmmakers are hoping the return of Asia’s largest in-person movie trade show this week will see an influx of buyers and investors putting their money into new local productions.
The Hong Kong International Film and TV Market (Filmart) trade show, held as a virtual event in the past three years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will run from Monday to Thursday.
Hosted by the Trade Development Council, the event offers an opportunity for producers, distributors, investors and professionals to launch promotions, network and negotiate deals for film financing. This year’s event has attracted nearly 700 exhibitors from more than 25 countries and regions.
Apart from major local companies, more than 20 overseas participants have set up pavilions to promote film and television productions, including those from mainland China, India, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Italy, the United States and Europe.
The event is expected to give the city’s movie industry a boost following the recent success of several films, especially the courtroom drama A Guilty Conscience, which became the highest-grossing Asian film of all time in Hong Kong with a record-breaking box office of more than HK$108 million (US$13.76 million).
The low-budget movie, a courtroom drama directed by first-timer Ng Wai-lun, stars stand-up comedian Dayo Wong Tze-wah as a sharp-tongued barrister who tries to redeem himself after landing an innocent woman in jail.
Veteran producer and actor Tenky Tin Kai-man, former chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers, said the first in-person Filmart since 2019 had sparked hopes of invigorating the city’s movie industry with more investment and movie deals.
“It has attracted a lot of buyers and investors from around the world to look for suitable productions for their markets and also cooperation opportunities for new projects,” he said.
“Local filmmakers hope to export their productions to expand their markets. The recent success of some Hong Kong movies has ignited hopes of attracting more investors and buyers to rejuvenate the city’s movie industry.”
Hong Kong cinemas closed for more than 100 days in the first half of last year when the city’s fifth wave of Covid-19 infections resulted in stringent restrictions for businesses.
But since last summer, the movie scene has perked up with the arrival of one local hit film after another. Sci-fi action thriller Warriors Of Future and comedy Table For Six raked in more than HK$81 million and HK$77 million respectively.
Warriors of Future, directed by Louis Koo Tin-lok, who also starred in the film alongside Sean Lau Ching-wan, is about two warriors who lead a team defending Earth from the invasion of a lethal alien plant, Pandora.
Despite its success in the city, it did not do as well on the mainland, and needed a major marketing drive there.
Table For Six, starring Dayo Wong Tze-wah and Louis Cheung Kai-chung and directed by Sunny Chan Wing-sun, focused on themes of estranged relationships and emigration and carries the message that “home is where your family is”.
Tin said the recent hits showed that Hong Kong’s audiences liked thought-provoking scripts and serious productions.
“Investors are still studying movie-goers’ interests,” he said. “They find that audiences nowadays are not necessarily drawn to popular genres. Rather, they are attracted to a variety of topics as long as the storytelling is good. That’s why the city’s filmmakers are busy working hard on the scripts first.”
Veteran filmmaker John Chong Ching of Media Asia Group, who produced famous Hong Kong films such as the Infernal Affairs trilogy, was also upbeat that Filmart would stimulate the interest of buyers and investors in local productions.
Media Asia Group’s booth at the event will showcase a new movie, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, produced by Chong and set in the Kowloon Walled City, which has been demolished.
It stars Louis Koo Tin-lok and tells how a troubled youth accidentally enters the Walled City, discovers order amid its chaos, and takes on a villain.
“The outlook is positive. After all, after three years of social distancing, youngsters actually like to go to cinemas instead of staying at home to watch movies online,” Chong said.
“Mainland Chinese viewers are drawn more to action-packed movies or thrillers, while local audiences seem more interested in movies that have local flavours. Investors will explore different movie genres to balance the two markets.”
However, culture critic Jimmy Pang Chi-ming remained pessimistic about the revival of Hong Kong’s film industry, saying the recent box office hits were only a temporary boom following the removal of coronavirus restrictions.
“Some Hong Kong movies did very well as Hongkongers have been starving for films and entertainment for a long time, but this revival is only short-term,” he said.
“Investors are still prudent when it comes to putting their money in local productions. There have been cases of box office hits in Hong Kong faring very badly on the mainland. Warriors of Future is an example.”
