Now in its 20th edition, a film-financing initiative based in Hong Kong is arguably more important than ever in these challenging times. Mathew Scott discusses the difference HAF has made to new and emerging filmmakers in Asia.

Ho Yuk-fai, director of Summer Breeze. The film is one of 28 in-development projects selected for this year’s Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

When the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) was launched in 2000, its mission — in simple terms — was to connect filmmakers with potential investors.

Some of the greats of contemporary Asian cinema — from Hong Kong’s Peter Chan Ho-sun to Japan’s Hideo Nakata and South Korea’s Park Chan-wook — have turned to HAF for help as they looked to have their visions realized. But the fact that there has been help, also, for any number of first-time filmmakers whose names have quickly faded from view reflects the breadth of HAF’s appeal and outreach.

Jacob Wong has sat front row throughout, in his role as director of HAF, and watched the many stories play out under this Hong Kong International Film Festival Society-directed initiative.

“There have been ups and downs, of course,” says Wong. “We set up the platform to connect people with ideas to people with money. Then, hopefully, both sides will be able to work together and make a film that will go to film festivals as well as make a little bit of money. That’s the ideal situation — OK, things don’t always work out — but that’s the mission of these project markets, and that’s what we’re continuing to do.”

Jacob Wong, Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum veteran and Hong Kong International Film Festival Industry Office director. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

HAF hooks filmmakers up with “top film financiers, producers, bankers, distributors and buyers” over three days of meetings, and each year it selects around 30 in-development (IDP) and 10 work-in-progress (WIP) projects. In normal times, of course, this means plenty of face-to-face meetings in a specially curated section of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, staged on the sidelines of the annual Hong Kong Filmart event.

Since 2020, the pandemic has forced the event online, where it continues to flourish. This year there are 28 IDP and 15 WIP programs, for an edition that will run from Monday through Wednesday.

Wong estimates the success rate — that is, the proportion of films passing through HAF that have actually been made — at a thoroughly respectable 40 percent. 

His role was recently expanded to director of HKIFF Industry — an umbrella organization overseeing all industry initiatives launched by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society. “Some are more successful than others, of course, and some were more mainstream projects, which might look a little schizophrenic because it might be seen as veering away from the original idea — which originated in Europe — of supporting film culture rather than the commercial side of the industry. But things are different in the Asian market.”

Cai Jie, director of Borrowed Time — one of 10 movies to have made it to the works-in-progress section of this year’s Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Fickle fortune

Wong has two stories he wants to share when asked to summarize the service that HAF provides, and they reflect both the vagaries of the film industry in general and also the seismic changes the Asian film industry has experienced across the past two decades.

The first involves independent Philippine filmmaker Brillante Mendoza, who arrived at HAF’s 2009 edition with plans for a low-budget and gritty inner-city thriller, and was gone — incredibly — just two days later, with the cash he needed in hand. The project was shot within a month, became known as Kinatay, and won Mendoza the Best Director Award at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.

In Borrowed Time, Lin Dongping plays an adult daughter searching for the father who suddenly went missing 20 years earlier. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Then there’s the story of the Chinese mainland team who brought the quirky, cancer-themed dramedy Dying to Survive to HAF in 2016 — and walked away empty-handed. The film went on to lift more than $450 million at the box office.

The contrast between the fates of these two projects hints, in part, at the challenges and opportunities ahead for HAF.

“In the early days of HAF, Europeans would come in and look at an Asian film project, and they’d think, ‘It’s not a lot of money that’s needed.’ But that’s just not going to happen anymore,” says Wong. “It’s just harder to get people anywhere to invest.” He hastens to add though that HAF has been receiving a lot of projects as well as investors from the mainland in recent years, as the film industry there has continued to flourish, and its ties with its Hong Kong counterpart have intensified.

There have been changes everywhere, Wong says, but the mission remains the same: “After 20 years we are still here. And every year we are very enthusiastic about our projects; we are expanding the things we’re doing, and so look forward to seeing these films getting made and making a splash.”

Poster of Cai Jie’s film Borrowed Time. Cai believes Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum is helping to connect filmmakers   across Asia. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Courting success

Turning to this year’s forum, and among the IDP projects is Hong Kong filmmaker Ho Yuk-fai’s first feature, Summer Breeze — billed as a “eulogy to Hong Kong’s young generation through the bittersweet lives of three graduates”. The director was first exposed to HAF in film-industry publications. He consulted participants from previous years before making his submission, thereby giving himself the opportunity to “make connections within the industry and get more exposure for the film project.”

“For independent young filmmakers, HAF is a huge platform to help start up their project,” says Ho. “Getting more exposure, finding film funding and sales agents are always difficult for Hong Kong independent films, and this is an opportunity to develop some potential non-mainstream and independent film projects. And maybe it also presents a wide spectrum to the film industry.”

Mainland director Cai Jie’s drama Borrowed Time — which follows “a daughter who sets out from Guangzhou to Hong Kong to look for her long-missing father” — has made it to the WIP section this year.

“Compared with (other) film markets in the Chinese-speaking circle, the special feature of HAF is that it not only welcomes Chinese-language projects, but also accepts applications from other places in Asia,” explains Cai. “I think this is related to the international perspective that Hong Kong provides. From a certain (viewpoint), HAF is a utopia that connects Asian filmmakers and encourages the mutual exchange of creations.”

Cai believes current global conditions — with restrictions on travel, gatherings and movement affecting film shoots, and cinema closures hitting receipts — make initiatives such as HAF even more important. But then such problems won’t stop filmmakers from expressing their worldviews, he adds. “Perhaps the thing that will test you, in the end, is whether you love film (enough to) still persevere.”