13 March, 2012 － An important feature of the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) is its selection and presentation of outstanding films from around the world. HKIFF’s support of short films is not only to showcase exceptional works, but also to encourage young filmmakers in their careers.
The HKIFF is engaged with short films including an international “Short Film Competition”; and the production of short films by established filmmakers in the Beautiful 2012 series.
Some of the HKIFF screenings will be attended by the director and actors to share their filmmaking experiences with the audience.
Short Film Competition
With support from the Jockey Club Charities Trust through the Jockey Club Cine Academy (JCCA), the Short Film Competition has continued to attract high quality entries. This year sees 20 finalists from around world, including Europe and the Americas, competing for the Grand Prize and Jury Prize.
The short films cover a range of subjects from human relations, love, suspense and mystery, fantasy and animation (please see appendix for details). The films will be screened in four programmes, each kicking off with a title from Beautiful 2012.
As a further sign of its development under JCCA, the Competition has inaugurated a new Special Prize (Hong Kong) for local filmmakers that is designed to encourage their creativity and competitiveness.
All the winners in the Short Film Competition will be announced at the Awards Gala evening at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Tsimshatsui, on April 3, 2012.
Film Quattro – Beautiful 2012
The Quattro Hong Kong series, inaugurated in 2010, was created as a celebration of the city of Hong Kong. This year the omnibus project is supported by Youku and produced by the HKIFF Society. The project features four commissioned short works directed by critically acclaimed filmmakers including, Ann Hui (My Way), Tsai Ming-Liang (Walker), Gu Changwei (Long Tou) and Kim Tae-yong (You are More Than Beautiful). My Way is based on a true story, Long Tou explores the indefinable future and fate, Walker discusses urbanisation and You are More Than Beautiful propagates love to everyone in the world (please see appendix for details). The finished work will have its world premiere at the upcoming 36th HKIFF.
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About Hong Kong International Film Festival Society
The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (HKIFFS) is a charitable, non-profit and non-governmental organization dedicated to the discovery and promotion of creativity in the art and culture of film.
Through its year-round programmes, the mission of the Society is to strengthen global appreciation of Chinese film culture and to promote inspiring films from around the world, enriching the cultural life of Hong Kong.
Committed to the development of a vibrant film culture in Hong Kong and Asia, the Society presents three annual flagship events in March and April: The Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) and the Asian Film Awards (AFA).
Passionately believing in the power of films to unite cultures and generations, the HKIFFS is devoted to giving thousands of film lovers around the region direct access to the world’s most inspiring films all year round.
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Appendix
Short Film Competition
Short Film Competition Programme I [Screening with Ann Hui’s My Way.]
Thermal imaging transforms the dance film ORA (Philippe Baylaucq) into a sensual journey. A young man tries to reconcile the demands of his ambassador dad with the needs for his father’s attention in the autobiographical The Ambassador & Me (Jan Czarlewski). Taiwan’s I Wake Up in a Strange Bed (Ho Wi-Ding) tells of an elderly man whose failing memory leads to the bittersweet rediscovery of his first and only love. In the surreal Japanese animation Beluga (Hashimoto Shin), a lonely child escapes into violent fantasy. Rebecca Jiang’s Happy Valentine finds a stranger teaching a French woman what a truly romantic gesture is. Total: 77min.
Date: March 31 (Sat)*
Time: 1:00 pm
Venue: Hong Kong Science Museum
Short Film Competition Programme II [Screening with Gu Changwei’s Long Tou]
The Magus (Jaimz Asmundson) follows Canadian artist C Graham Asmundson on an artistic journey as extraordinary as the film itself. In Abuelas (Afarin Eghbal), an old lady awaits the birth of her grandchild, even though she may have to wait for 30 years. A little boy lets his imagination run wild on a bus ride that bridges the divide between life and death in Who Opens the Door? (Hajime Izuki). Hong Kong’s notorious acid bomber lurks in the periphery of a disaffected working class neighbourhood in Acid (Lam Suk-ching). And in the CGI-rich A Curious Conjunction of Coincidences (Joost Reijmers), random circumstance makes a harmless soda can the catalyst for an explosive finale. Total: 77min.
Date: April 1 (Sun)*
Time: 1:00 pm
Venue: Hong Kong Science Museum
Short Film Competition Programme III [Screening with Tsai Ming-Ling’s Walker]
A childless newspaper vendor befriends a motherless girl and together they enact a comforting payphone fantasy in The Coin (Lily Huang). The sanctuary of an earthquake zone home is disrupted in Panic Room (Yip Yuk-yiu). The degree to which we can determine our own deaths is the question at the heart of the ironic
Finis Operis (Moon Byoung-gon). Yamamura Koji’s animated Muybridge’s Strings is a painterly reflection on the passage of time and the ties that bind. And from Brazil comes Tastes Like Chicken (Quico Meirelles), a heartbreaking, cheeky meditation on the global poultry trade and the meaning of freedom. Total: 72min.
Date: April 4 (Wed)*
Time: 10:30 am
Venue: Hong Kong Science Museum
Short Film Competition Programme IV [Screening with Kim Tae-yong’s You Are More Than Beautiful]
From France comes this debate over the meaning and power of three little words as filtered by two teenage girls in Everyone Says I Love You (Cécile Ducrocq). Within Within (Sharon Liu) ponders Hong Kong’s fluid and ungrounded identity. A weekly meal on the Sabbath turns into a feast of awkward revelations for two families in Shabbat Dinner (Michael Morgenstern). In Starting from A (BW Purba Negara), a blind Indonesian girl and a speech-impaired boy come together to help fulfil each other’s dreams and needs. And a combination of stop-motion and live action weaves a story about the impact of addiction on others in Drained (Nick Peterson). Total: 76min.
Date: April 4 (Wed)*
Time: 12:15 pm
Venue: Hong Kong Science Museum
Beautiful 2012
Date: March 22 (Thu)* / March 24 (Sat) / March 28 (Wed)
Time: 7:15 pm / 10:30 am / 5:30 pm
Venue: UA Cityplaza
My Way
Lately Ann Hui is happiest portraying common men and women finding hope and dignity in everyday life and ordinary circumstances. The situation here is a little out of the ordinary: a middle-aged office executive with a wife, a teenage son and a good job feels deep down that he is a woman. He confesses to his wife and undergoes the operation which transforms him from a man to a woman. Will he live happily ever after? He doesn’t know but he is content with his decision.
Long Tou
Maybe it’s because beauty is so elusive that folks spend so much time waiting for it, or rather, waiting for something that will eventually lead to some kind of beauty. Gu Changwei gathers a medley of characters – a writer, an artist, a young girl and a scavenger – in a “confined” space. They come together briefly and go their separate ways, anticipating a future that is as indefinable as it is their common fate.
Walker
Tsai Ming - Liang has his favourite collaborator Lee Kang-Sheng walk down the streets of present-day Hong Kong to ponder the fate of the city: its legendary beauty, its food, its pop music, its movie stars, its gossip rags, its Cantonese and its Putonghua. Is Xiao Kang walking too slowly or is the city changing too fast? Is it possible to take a glimpse at the future without looking back to the past?
You are More Than Beautiful
A man arrives in beautiful Jeju Island and pays a woman to go visit his gravely ill father as his partner. A seemingly everyday story about deception, Kim Tae-yong unsettles audience’s expectation by placing money in the centre of things. Nothing is ever what it seems or what it purports to be, and beauty has a way of coming through despite base human acts.
* This screening will be attended by the director and/or actors
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