Just what did the programmers say or do to get Juliette Binoche to attend the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) 2026?

“We gave her a concrete plan of how we wanted to present her works,” says HKIFF director of programming Geoffrey Wong, admitting that the star “took her time to confirm her attendance”, accepting the invite only earlier this year, “but it was well worth the wait.”

That “concrete plan” was the presentation of five movies the French actress stars in — including her directorial debut, In-I in Motion (2025), a documentary detailing the genesis of a brave dance duet she conceived alongside British dancer and choreographer Akram Khan. When the pair toured In-I in 2008, the actress had zero dance training. In a recent interview, Binoche had said that she did not necessarily become a dancer to perform as one. “I tried just to sustain the demands as much as I could.”

READ MORE: Lights, camera, milestone!

One night, actor Robert Redford came backstage and suggested that Binoche turn her In-I experience into a film. However, the opportunity did not present itself until several years later, prompting Binoche to revisit the hours of footage her sister, filmmaker Marion Stalens, shot while the piece was in development.

HKIFF also presents Binoche in her latest acting roles. The programmers could not have known that Queen at Sea (2026) would be awarded the Silver Bear Jury Prize following its premiere at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival in February. However, it now fits neatly alongside the trio of earlier award-winners that make up a small Binoche retrospective, titled The Choreographer of Emotion.

With more than 80 acting credits over a four-decade career, choosing a representative lineup was naturally a challenge, says Wong, noting that Binoche was the first to claim best actress awards at each of Europe’s “big three” film festivals. “Naturally, these were the first films we considered,” adds Wong.

And they are: Three Colours: Blue, for which Binoche was honored at the Venice Film Festival in 1993; Certified Copy, for which she won at Cannes in 2010; and The English Patient, which won her the Silver Bear in Berlin in 1997, besides an Academy Award and a BAFTA for supporting actress. “It turns out that these films cover different periods of her career, are made in different countries and languages, and are directed by filmmakers from different countries,” adds Wong. “We believe that the audience will be amazed by her acting range, and also her transformation through the years.”

Local connections

Acclaimed Thai auteur Pen-ek Ratanaruang will be at HKIFF to present Morte Cucina (2025), a knotty drama said to be inspired by Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread (2017), shot by none other than Christopher Doyle —the legendary Hong Kong cinematographer behind the distinct visual language of seven Wong Kar-wai classics including Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love. The result is a “female revenge story that incorporates elements of food porn and psychological thriller, making it both highly entertaining and deeply engaging,” says festival curator Alvin Tse.

This is the seventh time that Ildikó Enyedi’s work has been programmed by HKIFF, so it’s a fitting honor that, alongside Binoche, the Hungarian director will present one of the two in-person English-language masterclasses. It appears after the screening of her latest movie Silent Friend (2025) — starring none other than Hong Kong acting legend Tony Leung Chiu-wai, of Infernal Affairs (2002) and Happy Together (1997) fame.

Wong says Enyedi last visited in 2017, fresh from winning Berlin’s Golden Bear for On Body and Soul. “She enjoyed her time in Hong Kong and became our great friend. With Leung as the main actor in Silent Friend, it is fitting that she would visit Hong Kong again to present the film. Over the years, we have developed strong relationships with different filmmakers around the world, and our audience loves meeting these filmmakers in person.”

Flowing Rivers

Also programmed across multiple earlier editions of HKIFF is experimental British filmmaker Ben Rivers, invited to sit on the Short Film Competition jury. He will present his latest work Mare’s Nest (2025), which depicts children living in an adult-free post-apocalyptic world. “During the pandemic I began thinking about how terrible it must be to be a child locked up indoors all day with your parents,” explains Rivers. “I wanted to make a film that allowed children to be completely outside the world of adults. There are multiple crises piling up globally, and I thought, what might happen if we think completely beyond that, and try to find a shred of hope in the uncertainty.”

ALSO READ: Putting Chinese films on the map

The film is based on The Word for Snow (2007), a one-act stage play by Don DeLillo reflecting on the climate crisis. Rivers liaised personally with the American novelist, who insisted his script had to “be quite exact” in following the play, but permitted the director to change the characters’ genders. “As soon as I read it I wanted to do something with it,” remembers Rivers. “The play is so much about the anxieties around global climate change, extinction events, and these are things children are inheriting from their predecessors.”

While Rivers describes his own work as “quite calm and cerebral”, he admits holding a fondness for Hong Kong action films since childhood, and hopes his first visit to the city may provide the inspirations and connections for his next project. “I even had a dream of making a black-and-white behind-the-scenes film of a Hong Kong action film,” he adds. “Perhaps someone can take me to a studio?”

The writer is a freelance contributor to China Daily.