Two sections dedicated to animation and genre titles have been revealed by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (HKIFFS), completing the full line-up of the 24th Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF).
Among the seven animation and six genre projects announced today, three are works-in-progress, including The Excreman - On the Road by Brian Tse and Zsazsa Zaturnnah by Avid Liongoren, both animations; and suspense thriller What My Bones Know by Qin Yuqi. This trio of projects will join 12 previously announced WIP titles at the WIP open pitch session.
HAF’s full line-up this year comprises 42 projects, also including 17 in-development projects. All will be presented at the HKIFF Industry Project Market, running from March 17-19 alongside the 30th Hong Kong Filmart.
Highlights of the animation projects include The Excreman – On The Road by Brian Tse (creator of the McDull franchise), a story about a colossal poo who defeats the plumber sent to cleanse the poo community from the sewer before assuming the latter’s identity to start a new human life.
Fish Ball from Jhun Yong-Duk, co-director of The Tiger’s Apprentice, tells the story of a ruthless general reborn as a sardine who employs military strategies to lead his fish army against underwater predators.
Rainy Dreams by Alireza Ghasemi – who won the directing award at Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition for In The Land Of Brothers – is a hybrid of animation and live-action about six displaced children in Calais as they confront their fears and pursue their hopes through nightly dreams.
Chen Xudong’s Roxanne is a stop-motion monster film set in a post-apocalyptic ocean, following a boy born at sea in search of humanity’s last hope. It is produced by Lu Xiaowei, whose Light Pillar is set to premiere in the Berlinale’s Perspectives competition.
Sentinel from Carl Josep E. Papa – whose The Missing won best animated film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards – is a multi-POV drama about a transfer student, an editor-in-chief and a school principal, who clash when the campus newspaper reveals violence in the school’s military training programme.
Producer Isabelle Glachant reunites with Silver Bird And Rainbow Fish director Lei Lei on Tooth And Tales, a fairytale about a boy who embarks on a journey to find the story that can heal his toothache.
Genre lineup
Highlights of the genre projects include In the Name Of Right by Zhou Jinghao, whose Girl On Edge premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight last year, a suspense drama about a long-serving maintenance worker who chooses to do the right thing by helping his struggling employee, only to trigger a fatal accident.
Crime thriller The Power Plant by Tayfun Pirselimoglu, whose Kerr was Turkey’s Oscar submission in 2023, follows the dangerous liaison between a married meatball vendor and an excavator operator, while mutilated murders baffle the police in their snow-covered mining town.
Searchers: Blood In The Grass by former KOFIC chairperson Park Kiyong is an action drama that follows a Korean apple farmer who must form an uneasy alliance with his reluctant Mongolian father-in-law to rescue his pregnant wife from a powerful political dynasty involved in international fentanyl trafficking.
Set in 11th-century Singapore, mythological body horror Strange Root (Keinginan), by Lam Li Shuen – co-director of Born Of The Yam in this year’s Berlinale Forum Expanded – features a demi-god born from a yam, which is driven towards a violent and erotic confrontation after being cast aside.
Supernatural horror film The Veil by Gabriel Motta explores the violence hidden within faith and family through a fake religious cult which descends into darkness when a vengeful entity genuinely possesses the pastor’s daughter.
Set in a freezing, dying mining town, Qin Yuqi’s What My Bones Know is a dark tale of survival and fate, entangling a college graduate, a terminally ill miner, and a runaway accountant, who are all drawn to a local tavern following the discovery of a severed ear.
2026 HAF Animation Projects
* First narrative feature projects
^Previous HAF IDP projects
Fish Ball (S Kor)
Dir. Jhun Yong-Duk
Pros. Rhee Han-Dae, Chen Xiayan
Prodco. CocoaVision & AIOI Studios
Rainy Dreams (Fr-Iran)
Dir. Alireza Ghasemi
Pros. Mojean Aria, Reza Baastani, Constance Le Scouarnec
Prodco. Mystic Makers
*Roxanne (China)
Dir. Chen Xudong
Pros. Lu Xiaowei, Chen Xiaoran
Prodco. Fengduan Pictures (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
Sentinel (Phil)
Dir. Carl Joseph E. Papa
Pro. Geo Lomuntad
Prodco. Super!
Tooth And Tales (China-HK)
Dir. Lei Lei
Pros. Isabelle Glachant, Pi San
Prodco. Chinese Shadows
^The Excreman – On the Road (HK)
Dir. Brian Tse
Pros. Brian Tse, Samuel Choy
Prodco. On The Road Studio Limited
^Zsazsa Zaturnnah (Phil-Fr)
Dir. Avid Liongoren
Pros. Avid Liongoren, Franck Priot
Production Companies: Rocketsheep, Ghosts City Films
2026 HAF Genre Projects
* First narrative feature projects
In The Name Of Right (China)
Dir. Zhou Jinghao
Pros. Leste Chen, Emma Duan, Wang Yang
Prodco. Guliguo Pictures Limited
The Power Plant (Turkey-Rom-Bul)
Dir. Tayfun Pirselimoglu
Pros. Vildan Ersen, Radu Stancu, Vanya Rainova
Prodco. Gataki Films
Searchers: Blood in the Grass (Mong-S Kor)
Dir. Park Kiyong
Pros. Park Kiyong, Nomuunzul Turmunkh
Prodco. Hulegu Pictures LLC
Strange Root (Keinginan) (Sing-Indo-Ger-Neth)
Dir. Lam Li Shuen
Pros. Tan Bee Thiam, Looi Wan Ping, Mark Chua
Prodco. 13 Little Pictures
*The Veil (Bra)
Dir. Gabriel Motta
Pro. Aletéia Selonk
Prodco. Okna Produções
*What My Bones Know (China)
Dir. Qin Yuqi
Pro. Cui Zidong
Production Companies: Eternal Growth Stream Film
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