Hong Kong’s HAF Project Market Returns For Its First In-Person Edition Since 2019

The 21st edition of Hong Kong's Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) has a 28-title lineup. In addition to many others, the ceremony will highlight exciting new works from Singaporean Camera d'Or winner Anthony Chen, Hong Kong director Fruit Chan, Thai star Jakrawal Nilthamrong, and seasoned festival ringmaster Marco Mueller. After three straight online forums during the coronavirus pandemic, HAF will return in 2023 for its first live event since 2019.

Half of the 28 films chosen from 244 applications from 38 different countries and territories are by first-time directors, according to HAF; eight are Chinese-language works created as part of more recent iterations of the HAF Film Lab mentorship program. The variety includes drama, horror, fantasy, romance, animation, and family movies, among other genres. A Better Tomorrow (China) from Tang Peiyan and the animated drama Skin Coat (Singapore) from Teoh Yi Peng are two of the HAF's 2023 Chinese-language contenders. Chen, the director of the upcoming English-language film Drift and the Singapore Oscar submission Ilo Ilo, is also attached to both as a producer.

Chan is also slated to produce Frankie Lee's drama Kapok, which centers on a stressed-out lady who retreats to her birthplace in search of solace and escape. Jakrawal makes a comeback with Rhizome, a poetic drama that follows a Lao lady who, after her brother died by a bomb left over from the Vietnam War, goes to her own country to work as a "deminer." The drama In the Fruit, directed by Chinese filmmaker Li Dongmei, has Mueller, a former festival director of the Venice, Rome, Locarno, Macau, and Pingyao film festivals, on board as a producer.

Japan and India are represented at the 2023 HAF with just one project each. Filmmaker Mio Taniguchi’s entry, Nagahama (working title), tells the story of a young boy who enters a male-only children’s kabuki troupe and befriends a girl with gender dysphoria, gaining insights about tradition and identity. Indian director Praveen Morchhale arrives with White Snow, a drama about an elderly woman who sets out on a journey across mountains to show her son’s banned film in remote villages.

The event will be held March 13–15, 2023, in tandem with the 27th Hong Kong Film & TV Market (aka Filmart), which runs March 13-16, 2023.

The full HAF selection is as follows:

• Ah Ji (Hong Kong)

  • Director: Leo Zhu

  • Producer: Ho Ting-wai

  • Production Company: Booooooom

• A Better Tomorrow (China)

  • Director: Tang Peiyan

  • Producers: Anthony Chen, Xie Meng

  • Production Company: Canopy Pictures Shanghai

• Bhunte (Nepal)

  • Director: Bikas Neupane

  • Producer: Govinda Prasad Khanal

  • Production Company: Hamrobox Entertainment

• A Collapse Of Time (China)

  • Director: Feng Yi

  • Producer: Liu Jike

  • Production Company: Slumber Mountain Pictures

• Dark Eyes (China)

  • Director: Phakpa

  • Producers: Tian Zhuangzhuang, He Bin

  • Production Company: General Dream Studio

• A Divorce (U.K., Hong Kong, Canada)

  • Director: Jevons Au

  • Producers: Catherine Wong, Isis Tso

  • Production Companies: Movie Guys Canada Inc., 109G Studio

• Family Of Crooks (Thailand)

  • Director: Lai Kuo-An

  • Producer: Juno Teng

  • Production Company: Dancing Whale Production Co.

• Fly Me To The Mars (China)

  • Director: Zhao Dadi

  • Producer: Jane Xie

  • Production Company: Dirty Monkey Studio

• The Fruit (China)

  • Director: Li Dongme

  • Producers: Marco Mueller, Qi Ai

  • Production Company: Leopard Film Culture and Arts Co.

• Hugo In The Pigpen (Thailand, U.S.)

  • Directors: Shen Sheng-Ting, Shih Jing-Ting

  • Producers: Lai Zhen-Lin, Liang Mei-Jou, Shen Sheng-Ting

  • Production Company: Dot Connect Studio

• Janava (Iran)

  • Director: Arsalan Amiri

  • Producers: Ruth Yoshie Linton, Ida Panahandeh

  • Production Companies: Evar Film Studio, Kingyo Films