The Hong Kong-Asian Film Collaboration Funding Scheme has selected two Hong Kong-Japan co-productions by seasoned producers Stanley Kwan and Shunsuke Koga as its first winning projects.
All The Things We Have Done Wrong That Led Us To This, produced by Kwan, and 38.83, produced by Koga, will each receive a grant of up to $1.1m (HK$9m) to support their production. The announcement was made at the Hong Kong Night during the Cannes Film Festival on May 16.
All The Things… is to be directed by Japan’s Daishi Matsunaga, whose LGBTQ+ romance drama Egoist played in competition at Tokyo in 2022 and landed distribution in the US and territories across Asia. The script is written by Jun Li.
Hong Kong filmmaker Kwan’s credits as a director include Venice 2005 title Everlasting Regret, Cannes 2001 film Lan Yu and Berlin competition titles Center Stage, The Island Tales, Hold You Tight and Red Rose White Rose. He more recently produced Sasha Chuk’s Fly Me To The Moon, which won a Golden Horse award.
38.83 is set to be written and directed by Hong Kong’s Cheuk Wan Chi, who previously made paramedic drama Vital Sign starring Louis Koo, which closed the Hong Kong International Film Festival in 2023.
Japan’s Koga has been a producer for more than 30 years, with recent credits including Ryuichi Hiroki’s Motherhood, which played at Tokyo in 2022, and Isao Yukisada’s Berlinale prize-winner River’s Edge.
The Hong Kong-Asian Film Collaboration Funding Scheme was launched last year to encourage film co-productions between Hong Kong and Asia. Earlier this year, the Hong Kong Film Development Council (FDC) extended the scheme to cover Europe as well as Asia.
In Hong Kong, FDC also offers the first feature film initiative and film production financing scheme to local filmmakers.
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