The popularity of horror and action thrillers has inspired the relaunch of a genre section at HAF. Screen profiles the selection
Asia has long been known for producing innovative horror features and thrillers that pack a punch. Embracing this, HKIFF Industry Project Market will host a dedicated genre film focus, comprising five titles in development and one work-in-progress.
As part of the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), projects will be seeking production partners and investors. The team behind the work-in-progress title will be looking to secure post-production funding, meet distribution agents and connect with film festival programmers.
The projects will also be in the running for several in-development and work-in-progress prizes. These include the HAF IDP award and HAF WIP award, which each include cash prizes of nearly $13,000 (hk$100,000), as well as further cash and in-kind awards offered by a range of organisations.
In The Name Of Right (China)
- Director Zhou Jinghao
- Producers Leste Chen, Emma Duan, Wang Yang
- Production company Guliguo Pictures
- Budget $5.65m
Following his debut feature Girl On Edge, which premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes last year, director Zhou’s upcoming suspense drama follows a long-serving maintenance worker grappling with the complexities of “doing the right thing”. When an attempt to help his struggling employer inadvertently triggers a fatal accident, he must reckon with his misplaced loyalty and buried self-interest.
The story is set between a small town in China’s Jiangsu province and Shanghai.
“I see this film as a personal story about shame, ambition, and the complicated desire to escape where we come from,” says Zhou. “It is intimate in scale, but emotionally intense — a story about the quiet ways we betray ourselves while trying to become someone else.”
The film is produced by Leste Chen, Emma Duan and Wang Yang, all of whom previously worked on Girl On Edge.
Zhou studied computer science at Harvard University and worked in Silicon Valley before leaving the tech sector to pursue filmmaking. His short-film credits include Lausanne and Get Out.
Contact Guliguo Pictures
The Power Plant (Turkey-Rom-Bul)
- Director Tayfun Pirselimoglu
- Producers Vildan Ersen, Radu Stancu, Vanya Rainova
- Production companies Gataki Films, De Film, Portokal Film
- Budget $1.67m
The police are initially perplexed when severed limbs are discovered inside a power plant in a remote Turkish mining town. Suspicion falls on an ex-convict who becomes entangled with a mysterious married woman running a meatball kiosk near the facility. But while her jealous husband spirals into paranoia, a more disturbing truth emerges: that the woman embarks on murderous hunts with her three friends.
Rooted in psychological horror, Turkish filmmaker Pirselimoglu is positioning this dark thriller as an examination of the systemic violence faced by women living under patriarchy. He says it was partially inspired by a real-life case in which a woman faced intense media vilification after killing her abusive partner. “For many women, patriarchy is not only unequal and repressive but full of horror,” says Pirselimoglu.
His debut short My Uncle premiered at Venice in 1999, while features Riza (2007) and Haze (2010) were selected for the Berlinale and Hair (2010) played in competition at Locarno. Pirselimoglu’s more recent films include Idea (2025) and Kerr (2021), which was Turkey’s submission for the 95th Academy Awards.
Contact Gataki Films
The Grass (Mong-S Kor)
- Director Park Kiyong
- Producers Park Kiyong, Nomuunzul Turmunkh
- Production company Hulegu Pictures
- Budget $800,000 ($250,000 raised)
This action drama revolves around a pregnant woman who visits her nomadic family in north Mongolia but is kidnapped after witnessing the murder of a journalist. Her Korean husband, a former military police investigator, races to rescue her and is forced into an uneasy alliance with his disapproving father-in-law. Together, they uncover a conspiracy that links environmental devastation with drug trafficking, controlled by the region’s most powerful political dynasty.
The project is set against the vast landscapes of the Mongolian steppe, and is looking to assemble an all‑local crew attuned to the location. Against this western-inspired landscape, Searchers is intended to unfold as a hard-boiled noir, probing the meaning of family in a cross-cultural world shaped by migration and shifting identities.
Director Park is known for features such as Motel Cactus, Camels, Garibong, Yanji and Picture Of Hell. He is also a former chairperson of the Korean Film Council. Producer Nomuunzul Turmunkh previously directed 2024’s Silent City Driver, which was Mongolia’s submission to this year’s Academy Awards.
Contact b films
Strange Root (Sing-Indo-Ger-Neth)
- Directors Lam Li Shuen, Mark Chua
- Producers Tan Bee Thiam, Looi Wan Ping, Mark Chua
- Production company 13 Little Pictures
- Budget $1m ($214,000 raised)
Set in 11th-century Singapore, this body horror follows a demigod born from a yam, who is fed on and worshipped. When a shipwreck brings a mysterious beast ashore, the islanders’ obsession shifts to the newcomer, leaving the demigod discarded and allied with a scheming outcast. What follows is a descent into madness, violence and an erotic confrontation fuelled by jealousy and the pursuit of power.
“With this twisted body horror, we want to unearth the monstrous desires under our skin through grotesque practical effects set against jungle locations, transporting audiences to a mythological nightmare on Singapore island, a thousand years ago,” says Lam.
Lam and co-director Chua previously collaborated on short The Inescapable Desire Of Roots, which played at Rotterdam in 2024, and experimental work Born Of The Yam, which premiered in the Forum Expanded section at last month’s Berlinale.
Now in script development, Strange Root has already been selected for Rotterdam’s CineMart, the Locarno Residency and Berlinale Talents Script Station.
Contact 13 Little Pictures
The Veil (Bra)
- Director Gabriel Motta
- Producers Aleteia Selonk, Gabriel Motta
- Production companies Okna Producoes, Fogo Filmes
- Budget $940,000 ($27,000 raised)
This horror story set in southern Brazil follows a charismatic pastor who has built a cult around meticulously staged exorcisms. Obscured behind a long white veil, his teenage son performs fake possessions during emotionally charged ceremonies, all while repressing his queer identity under his father’s oppressive control.
When a grieving parent sees through the deception and takes his own life mid-ceremony, the illusion, and the family, start to crumble. The pastor’s daughter, who runs the technical tricks behind the facade, starts manifesting real and violent supernatural phenomena.
The Veil marks Motta’s feature directorial debut and is an expansion on his short of the same name, which premiered at Toronto in 2025. He is attempting through the film to delve into Brazil’s complex religious landscape and explore weaponised faith, queer silencing and family power struggles.
It is produced by Aleteia Selonk, the founder of Okna Producoes, who worked with the director on short Pastrana, which won several festival awards and was the sole Brazilian film selected for Tribeca in 2024.
Contact Okna Producoes
Work in progress
What My Bones Know (China)
- Director Qin Yuqi
- Producer Cui Zidong
- Production company Everflowing Pictures
- Budget $216,000
Qin’s feature directorial debut is set in Faku County, a bleak mining region in northeast China. The drama follows a college student returning home, a retired miner, a local thug and a low-level factory accountant.
When the urban myth of “General’s Red Bones” starts to circulate and the discovery of a severed ear unsettles the town, the characters’ paths converge, revealing how two generations of miners are tragically intertwined.
The film looks to blend gritty realism with mythic elements, reflecting the structural unemployment and social upheaval that reshaped resource-reliant cities during China’s economic transition.
Drawing both on his personal observations during the global pandemic and extensive field research, Qin intends to frame the narrative as both an elegy to a vanishing era and an ode to those who endured its hardships.
Produced by Cui Zidong, the feature is from Qin’s own outfit Everflowing Pictures, which was founded to explore distinctive visual storytelling that pushes the boundaries of cinema. Initially self-funded, the director’s cut is now complete.
Contact Everflowing Pictures
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