The rise of AI, the increased need for collaboration and a glitzy dash of star power had attendees talking at the 30th anniversary edition of Hong Kong International Film and TV Market (Filmart).
Around 7,700 industry professionals are understood to have walked the market floor at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and Screen was there to take the temperature of the business.
AI interest, caution
Back for a second year, the AI Academy and AI Hub expanded their space on the Filmart floor and were consistently among the busiest areas of the market. The AI Academy hosted 19 events across four days, including talks on screenwriting, production workflows, copyright protection and case studies of films made using artificial intelligence.
However, several speakers were careful to balance the strong interest in AI production, with notes of caution around proper use.
“Once you move to the film industry, you need industry standards in the workflow,” said Jie Yang, co-founder and CTO at US AI firm Utopai Studios. “Not ‘sometimes good, sometimes bad’ – you need to make it consistently good.”
“We need artists to experience the world, and to make decisions and judgements,” said Cheng Yuhang, COO at Midjourney China Lab. “A lot of people use our models to generate graphics. They are not creating, they are just choosing. It depends how you want to use AI – are you going to give up your responsibility?”
Tricky travel
Industry consensus is that Asian attendance at European festivals and markets has never recovered to pre-pandemic levels. That has made the annual trip to Filmart all the more important for meeting Asian buyers, according to several European sellers. “For some territories, it’s the only time of the year we get to meet in person,” said Marine Dorville, international sales executive at France’s Pyramide.
It wasn’t just sales teams who made the trip across either, with the British Film Institute (BFI) bringing a delegation of five UK producers to the market to meet potential Asian partners.
The ongoing war between US-Israel and Iran caused travel headaches for executives from the Middle East, with several telling Screen they were unable to make the trip and had to switch their Filmart participation to online only. However, Jeddah-based executives from Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Foundation and the Saudi Film Commission did make it across.
Airspace around several major Middle East transport hubs including Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Doha in Qatar remain closed or significantly restricted. This could pose a problem to Asian executives looking to attend Cannes in May, with many – including from the Philippines and Taipei – requiring flight transfers in the Middle East region.
Better together
Co-productions are somewhere between an opportunity and a necessity for Asian producers now, according to several Filmart speakers. “Co-production is a model that some of the filmmakers have to use in Thailand to survive, because the market for box office is so uncertain nowadays,” said Raymond Phathanavirangoon of Peanut Pictures, prolific co-producer of titles including Ron Howard’s Thirteen Lives.
“The challenge is how to bring our stories to the global stage through co-production, so that films don’t only succeed in Vietnam,” said Tran Thi Bich Ngoc of the country’s AnNam Films.
Producer Ron Dyens of France’s Sacrebleu Productions hotfooted it from the Oscars, where his Butterfly had been nominated for best animated short, to speak on two Filmart panels. “Co-producing has to be the first point of the DNA of a producer,” said Dyens, on a panel dedicated to the topic, with other speakers including former Academy president Janet Yang.
A separate session noted the potential for co-productions to assist the Japanese animation sector. “Japan is very conservative; we only watch Japanese anime,” said producer Noriko Matsumoto. “It’s time to think about the global market.”
Stars shine over Hong Kong
Upcoming thriller Cold War 1994 delivered one of the glitziest media launches at this year’s Filmart. Star power ramped up with Terrance Lau, Louise Wong and Tony Leung Ka-fai meeting the enthusiastic press and industry guests in a packed room.
Lau is one of the most prominent rising Hong Kong stars, who is also set to return for the sequel to breakout hit Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In.
Cold War 1994 also marks the return of Daniel Wu to Hong Kong cinema after a six-year hiatus in Hollywood, where his credits included Tomb Raider and HBO’s Westworld.
Notable Hong Kong singer-actor Aaron Kwok was also one of the hottest stars at Filmart, heading a trio of hot projects that feature him in diverse roles, from a New York Chinatown chef in Wang Yang’s drama June, to a soft-hearted debt collector in a rural Chinese city in Steven Zhang Zhonghua’s I O U, and a soul-swapping disabled father in Hsu Fu-Hsiang’s Taiwanese fantasy comedy Don’t Father Me.
Finding the next ‘Ne Zha’
Following the $2.2bn success of Ne Zha 2 in mainland China and globally, buyers were looking for the next big animated feature.
Several Chinese titles are lined up for a summer release, including All Wishes Come True! inspired by Chinese legend The Eight Immortals Crossing The Sea; Tang Dynasty-set detective fantasy Demon Agent; and Da Sheng Rises, which features the return of the classic Monkey King character after Money King: Hero Is Back.
The power of IP in animation was also a hot topic. “Build the IP so the characters can go from small, to medium, to big,” said Sai Abishek, Warner Bros Discovery’s head of factual entertainment, lifestyle and kids for South Asia. “Make the franchise more popular before trying to do five other things around it. Then you can get into toys and all the other ways kids can react with it.”
“Animation is one of the most exciting and borderless creative industries today,” added Gabriel Pang, chairman of the Hong Kong Digital Entertainment Association. “Original IPs are becoming global powerhouses through smart financing, innovative monetisation and truly international partnerships.”
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