The Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) today unveiled its lineup of 25 projects for its 2017 edition.
In keeping with a push at several major events internationally to improve the numbers of women making films, almost half of the HAF selections this year have female directors and/or producers.
HAF regular Naomi Kawase (Cannes-premiered An and Still the Water) has a producer credit on Ida PANAHANDEH’s working titled NARAtive Film 2017-2018, “a free modern adaptation of a work by Shakespeare”.
Other female filmmakers selected include Miyake Kyoko, Rubaiyat Hossain, Chen Yi-jung from Taiwan, Honey B Singh, Degena Yun and Ying Weiwei. All up, the selections were made from over 350 submissions from 14 different countries.
For the second time in three years an Australian project makes the cut. In 2015 Hannah Moon’s The A Women was selected. This year, Grant Scicluna’s Chantou, with Jannine Barnes producing, is one of the titles named.
Among the locals selected, Adam Wong returns as producer of TOM Chung-sing’s Impossible Split. Last year, Wong (The Way We Dance) participated as director of Trains in the Night. Also returning to HAF is Chinese director Degena Yun with drama Rainbow Mountain. Yun’s first feature, A Simple Goodbye, was at HAF and went on to win the the Spirit of Asia Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
HAF will also introduce the Work in Progress Laboratory this year, to help directors and producers securing post-production funds. Giving preference to projects previously selected for HAF, the Lab will run alongside HAF. The projects for the Lab will be announced in February.
HAF runs 13 – 15 March, alongside Filmart (13 – 16 March). The projects selected for HAF are:
| HAF projects 2017 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Country | Director(s) | Producer(s) |
| The Asadas | Japan | NAKANO Ryota | OGAWA Shinji |
| Chantou | Australia | Grant SCICLUNA | Jannine BARNES |
| Femme Fatale | Japan | MIYAKE Kyoko | Guillaume DE SEILLE |
| Forget You, Still Love You? | Hong Kong | Paul SZE Pak-lam, Kenneth LAI Siu-kwan |
TIN Kai-man, LAU Wing-tai |
| The Goddess | Hong Kong | Sobel CHAN Ka-lok | Sobel CHAN Ka-lok |
| The Grassland of Narangerel | China | YING Weiwei | ZHOU Hongbo |
| I AM A BANANA! | Singapore, Canada | Honey B SINGH | Mona SINGH |
| I’m Perfect | The Philippines | Sigrid Andrea BERNARDO | Alemberg ANG |
| Impossible Split | Hong Kong | TOM Chung-sing | Adam WONG |
| La Luna | Singapore | M. Raihan HALIM | Asra AMAN |
| Leftover Women | Israel, Germany | Shosh SHLAM, Hilla MEDALIA | Hilla MEDALIA, Shosh SHLAM, Jürgen KLEINIG |
| A Life Lost and Found (working title) |
India | Prateek SRIVASTAVA | Nitin UPADHYAYA |
| Made In Bangladesh | Bangladesh | Rubaiyat HOSSAIN | Rubaiyat HOSSAIN, François D’ARTEMARE |
| Man on the Dragon | Hong Kong | Sunny CHAN | Joe MA, Jacqueline LIU |
| NARAtive Film 2017-2018 (Title: work-in-progress) |
Japan | Ida PANAHANDEH | KAWASE Naomi |
| The New Wife | India | Shashwati TALUKDAR | Anjali PANJABI |
| No.1 Chung Ying Street | Hong Kong | Derek CHIU Sung-kee | Derek CHIU Sung-kee |
| The Patient | China | YANG Long | ZHOU Jia |
| Pawns with No Return | Taiwan | CHEN Yi-Jung | LIN Jing-Jie |
| Rainbow Mountain | China | Degena Yun | ZHANG Yang |
| Restore Point | Czech Republic | Robert HLOZ | Jan KALLISTA |
| The Rocks of Hua Lamphong | Singapore | JD CHUA | Juan FOO |
| Ten Thousand Happiness | China, Canada | Johnny MA | WANG Jing, WU Xianjian |
| Upside Down | Malaysia | TANAKA Yasu | TANAKA Bea |
| HAF/FOX Project Award Winner | |||
| Drifting Lives | China | Danlly L | Ray CHAN |
Top image: (clockwise from top left), Chantou, I Am a Banana!, I’m Perfect, Impossible Split
