Top name directors including Taiwan's Tsai Ming Liang and Chang Tso Chi, Australia's Clara Law, Hong Kong's Mabel Cheung, Korea's Jang Sun Woo and Thailand's Nonzee Nimibutr are among the 24 artists unveiling their next projects at the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) next month (April 7-9).

HAF, which is closely modelled on Rotterdam's CineMart, aims to match Asian films in development or early pre-production with finance coming from distributors, sales houses, co-producers and investment outfits. The main criteria for selection are the commercial and artistic viability and quality of the projects, as well as the talent and past records of the directors and producers attached to them.

The forum is the latest version of the Spring events that have for the last few years been timed to fit with the Hong Kong festival and the annual Hong Kong Film Awards.

In addition to the big names that have already carved out reputations on the international art-house circuit HAF includes projects by talent that is less known or is better known in other areas. These include Aubrey Lam writer of commercial pictures Fighting For Love, 12 Nights and Purple Storm, Teddy Chen producer of Black Mask and Chinese director Andrew Cheng who was recently in Rotterdam with Welcome To Destination Shanghai. Local director Lo Chi Leung, previously responsible for Inner Senses, has two projects Classmates and ghost story Jiang Shi.

Evidence of the co-operation with CineMart and Korea's Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) shows through with the selection of PPP winner GIE by Riri Riza and Nonzee Nimibutr's CineMart entry The Truth Untold (Buddha Didn't Tell) (Mai-Hed-Pra-Ted-Thai).

HAF project list
Fable 4:30pm Dir: Susie Au
The Drummer Dir: Kenneth Bi
Mountain Blues Dir: Fruit Chan
Butterfly Dir: Chang Tso Chi
Dark October Dir: Teddy Chen
Love Machi Dir: Chen Yi Wen
Flying Along The Horizon Dir: Andrew Cheng Yu Su
The Little Red Shoes Dir: Mabel Cheung Yuen Ting
Untold Scandal Dir: E J Yong
The Bondmaid Producers: Titus Ho, / Jimmy Ye
So Long Dir: Jang Sun Woo
Love Virus Dir: Kim In Sik
Nico Dir: Aubrey Lam
Like A Dream Dir: Clara Law
Marilene & Mali Dirs: Li Ji Xian / Li Wei
The Longest Distance Dir: Lin Chin Je
Snowing Dir: Liu Hao
Classmates Dir: Lo Chi Leung
Jiang Shi Dir: Lo Chi Leung
The Truth Untold (Buddha Didn't Tell) (Mai-Hed-Pra-Ted-Thai) Dir: Nonzee Nimibutr
GIE Dir: Riri Riza
My Favorite Place Dir: Su Chao Pin
The Cloud Dir: Tsai Ming Liang
Both Of Us Dir: Amos Why