FILMART HKIFF: THE LOCAL AND THE GLOBAL
The Hong Kong International Film Festival (March 21-April 5) is fl ying the fl ag for local fi lms with this year’s opening title, Pang Ho-cheung’s romantic comedy Love In The Buff, a follow-up to his well-received Love In A Puff, one of two opening fi lms at the festival in 2010. Closing fi lm, Wang Quan’an’s White Deer Plain, recently picked up a Silver Bear for cinematography in Berlin. Pang’s Vulgaria, a self-
confessed low-brow parody of the Hong Kong fi lm industry, will also screen at the festival in the Hong Kong Panorama section. Gala presentations include Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar, Joseph Cedar’s Footnote, Steve McQueen’s Shame and Michael Winterbottom’s Trishna. Among the special sections,
celebrating its tenth anniversary with an expanded line-up of 32 projects, includ- ing six documentaries. The projects market, which has
helped finance films such as Wei Te- sheng’s Warriors Of The Rainbow: Seediq Bale, has recently been expanding its international networks and this year will feature one project from New York’s Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), US-Malaysia drama You’re A Big Girl Now, and two documentaries from Copenhagen’s DOX:LAB — Love:1984, about the plight of Slovak/Japanese cou- ples during the Cold War, and Thai docu-drama Hangman. The inclusion of documentaries in
HAF also ties in with Filmart’s efforts to bring more Asian broadcasters to the market. “Asian TV stations in general have a huge appetite for documentaries and are looking to the West for materi- als,” says Yip. Ateliers du Cinéma Européen (ACE)
is also returning this year as a HAF part- ner on a Sino-European projects work-
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shop, with the objective to forge stronger links between producers in Europe and Chinese-speaking territo- ries. HAF and Fox International Produc- tions will also be handing out the fi rst HAF/Fox Chinese Film Development Award, which comes with a $12,900 (HK$100,000) prize and a development contract with Fox. As usual, the stars will be out in force
on the opening evening of Filmart for the Asian Film Awards (March 19), which like HAF is organised by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (HKIFFS). This year, three films from Chinese
directors, if not all in Chinese, have scooped the most nominations: Tsui Hark’s Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate, Zhang Yimou’s The Flowers Of War and Wei’s Warriors Of The Rainbow: Seediq Bale. However, they face stiff competi- tion from Iran’s recent foreign-language Oscar winner, A Separation, which has five nominations including best film and best director.
s March 2012 Screen International 3 ■
Poland In Close-Up will screen eight recent fi lms including Lech Majewski’s The Mill And The Cross. Rediscovering American Indies will screen Whit Stillman’s Damsels In Distress and winners from recent festivals such as Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene, which won best director at Sundance. “We have our well-
established mix of international features, masters’ works, Asian discoveries, Hong Kong
panorama and tributes,” says Roger Garcia, executive director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (HKIFFS). “We are also very happy to be screening The Story Of Film, a series on the history of cinema by Mark Cousins based on his book of the same name. Mark will be here to introduce and discuss his fi lm and it promises to be a great experience.” This year, the festival is opening halfway through Filmart, rather than the night before the market begins, which Garcia describes as a quirk of the calendar and venue bookings. “We like to try and also encompass holiday periods like Ching Ming and Easter,” he explains. The star quotient should be high at the opening with Charlotte Rampling on hand in her capacity as president of the Paris Cinema International Film Festival, which is presenting a focus on Hong Kong cinema. She will also attend a screening of The Look, her “self-portrait through others”, directed by Angelina Maccarone. On the eve of the festival,
Keanu Reeves will present the Jockey Club Cine Academy masterclass on March 18. Filmmaker In Focus Peter Ho-sun Chan will also face the public at an open session on April 3 (see interview, p8).
HKIFF’s opening fi lm Love In The Buff
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