This month’s Hong Kong International Film Festival will showcase over 190 films from 62 countries and regions, including five world premieres, and 64 Asian premieres.
Running 12 days (March 28 – April 8), the festival will open with the Asian premiere of local director Ray Yeung’s “All Shall Be Well,” which won the Teddy Award at the recent Berlin festival.
The closing film is the Asian premiere of “All the Long Nights,” directed by Miyake Sho and starring Matsumura Hokuto and Kamishiraishi Mone, which also premiered in Berlin. PvNew’s review of “Nights” called it “gently luminous.”
Chinese-language films selected for the Firebird competition include: “Borrowed Time,” “Brief History of a Family,” “Carefree Days,” Fresh off Markham,” “A Journey in Spring,” “Snow in Midsummer,” “Some Rain Must Fall” and “A Song Sung Blue.”
Foreign films for the Firebird competition’s other section include: “Arcadia,” “Arni,” “Ivo,” “Pepe,” “Sons,” “Sujo,” “The Tenants” and “Who Do I Belong to.”
The festival’s other highlights include: the Asian premiere of “Gift,” a live concert collaboration between Hamaguchi Ryusuke and composer Ishibashi Eiko; a visit by and a retrospective of renowned British-Irish playwright-director and multiple award-winner Martin McDonagh; and presentations by Spain’s Víctor Erice and Cannes best actress winner Zar Amir (“Holy Spider”). Local icon, Fruit Chan is set as the Filmmaker in Focus.
Gala presentations include: Korean box office hit “Exhuma,” “Love, Lies” and “The Successor.”
The larger Global Vision section includes: “How to Have Sex,” “Inshallah, A Boy,” “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell,” Oasis of Now,” “ Shayda” and “Terrestrial Verses.”
The Les Auteurs section includes “Do Not Expect too Much From the End of the World,” “Priscilla,” “Shadow of Fire,” The Cats of Gokugu Shrine” and “Snow Leopard.”
