The Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) has revealed 25 in-development projects set for its 23rd edition, with titles produced by acclaimed filmmakers such as Hirokazu Kore-eda, Aditya Vikram Sengupta, Sylvie Pialat, Lee Sinje, Stanley Kwan and Yeh Ju-Feng. A standalone animation section will also be introduced for the first time.
Part of the HKIFF Industry Project Market, HAF is scheduled to take place from March 17-19 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, in conjunction with Hong Kong Filmart.
Scroll down for full list of projects
Out of 276 submissions from 45 countries and regions, “those shortlisted are remarkable for their cultural diversity”, said HKIFF Industry director Jacob Wong. “They showcase extraordinary storytelling in a broad range of genres, from action to sci-fi, fantasy, suspense, and horror.
“There are nine projects from female directors this year, as well as several collaborations involving filmmakers from Asia, Europe, and North America, underscoring Hong Kong’s position at the crossroads of the global film industry.”
At least 13 projects with budgets ranging from $200,000 to $5m have secured partial funding.
Wong added that a standalone section for animated features will be introduced this year to facilitate the development of animation production in the region. Several animation projects at different stages of development or production will be revealed in mid-February after the announcement of HAF’s works-in-progress projects.
This new animation section will join the long-running HAF and the HKIFF Industry - CAA China Genre Initiative (HCG), which was introduced last year for Chinese-language genre films to become part of the growing HKIFF Industry Project Market.
While the second edition of this biannual HCG will take place in 2026, a new script development award presented by CAA China will first be presented at this year’s HKIFF Industry Project Market.
Acclaimed producers
Among the highlights for this year’s in-development projects are several feature debuts supported by acclaimed producers, including Hu Wei’s 49 Days, a France-China collaboration produced by Sylvie Pialat (Timbuktu, Stranger By The Lake) and Nai An, about a divorced Chinese couple who reunite in Paris to arrange their son’s funeral and confront their past, and Indigo Boy, a fantasy produced by Yeh Ju-Feng for MV and TVC director Bill Chia that tackles depression and indigo children through two close friends who struggle with their mental illness.
Niladri Mukherjee’s Republic Of Mahalaxmi Apartment, produced by Aditya Vikram Sengupta (Once Upon A Time In Calcutta), examines India’s majority rule issues through a single-mother tenant who becomes her housing estate’s public enemy when she flags a malfunctioning elevator, while Yellow, which is produced by Cannes Palme d’Or winning filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters, Monster) for his assistant director Miyoh Yamaura, is about a man who lives a life of self-punishment after a fatal car accident, but meets the young son of his deceased friend who helps him confront his loss and guilt.
While most of the in-development projects are original stories, two are adapted from novels. Adapted from Chinese sci-fi writer Gu Shi’s Hugo Award-shortlisted novelette, Wang Kunlin’s 2181 Overture focuses on a scientist who, upon waking up from cryogenic hibernation, must adjust to a new world while finding her lost daughter through a book she left behind, while The Age Of Goodbyes is based on Malaysian writer Li Zi Shu’s bestselling novel about the complicated relationship between a woman, her stepdaughter and the latter’s new lover in 1970s Ipoh. The latter is directed by Edmund Yeo, whose We, The Dead (Aqérat) won the best director award at Tokyo International Film Festival in 2017.
Several co-productions involve Hong Kong talent, including two led by Hong Kong directors. In Fan Ka Chun’s feature debut, horror suspense thriller Something In The Way, a detective suffering from face blindness must stop himself from becoming a monster as repressed memories of his missing mother resurface, while Open Fire by Sze Pak-lam and Lau Wing-tai (Guilt By Design) is a crime action-disaster film that revolves around a firefighter who must rescue his wife from a slum fire ignited by Interpol during their raid on terrorism.
Returning projects
Some five projects in the lineup have previously gone through HAF Film Lab, three of which won a six-month script development support from HKIFF Industry. They comprise Gone With The Wind by Zhao Yanming, a coming-of-age drama about a high-school student determined to eradicate a gambling gang from his hometown in the Inner Mongolian prairie; Somatization by Sun Xiao, a sci-fi horror set against a town crawling with petrochemical plants where people turn into monsters after a mysterious explosion; and Waves Under The Sea by Chan Sileong, an LGBTQ+ drama about two boys who grow up together by the seaside, but whose life choices see them drift apart.
Several projects mark the return of filmmakers who have previously participated in HAF or have had their films screened at HKIFF, including The Circumciser by Jun Robles Lana (Kalel), a historical drama about a 16-year-old boy in 1920s US-ruled Philippines who wants to study English rather than take over his father’s trade as their island village’s lone circumciser; Drive South Pray West by Panu Aree and Kong Rithdee (The Cursed Land), which centres on a Muslim teenager from Thailand’s troubled south who flees to Bangkok where he faces a crucial dilemma around demanding justice for his dead brother; and Giant Salamander by Yang Heng (Silent Ghosts) about a lonely man who moves to the countryside in Hunan Province to work as a carer for an old man and the giant salamander that the latter keeps in a hidden cave.
Further notable projects include A Stranger At My Door produced by Stanley Kwan and directed by Rotterdam Tiger Award winner Zheng Lu Xinyuan (The Cloud In Her Room), which follows an amateur film director who finds solace in a French composer when prepping for the film about her mother’s sexual abuse, while her mother’s ghost haunts her and her cast; Dead Tide produced by actress Lee Sinje and Jin Ong (Abang Adik) and directed by Kethsvin Chee (Hello, Tapir), about a recently released murderer who returns to his fishing village to atone for his past, only to become entwined with a mentally ill woman locked up in a room; and Lanka by Saurav Rai (Guras), a psychological revenge drama about how the feud between two Indian families escalates into a cycle of revenge when a karate drill of their boys goes awry.
HAF In-Development Projects 2025
* First narrative feature projects
^ HAF Film Lab projects
2181 Overture (China-Can)
Dir. Wang Kunlin
Pro. Zhao Zheyuan
Prodco. Yeahcheer Pictures Co.
49 Days (Fr-China) *
Dir. Hu Wei
Pros. Sylvie Pialat, Nai An
Prodco. Les films du Worso
Aanaikatti Blues (India)
Dir. Arun Karthick
Pro. Madhu Mohan
Prodco. Manvasanai Cinema
The Age Of Goodbyes (Tai-Malay)
Dir. Edmund Yeo
Pros. David Tang, Edmund Yeo, Dennis Lai, Zhao Jin
Prodcos. Renaissance Films Limited, Happy Together Pictures
Besik. Homecoming (Tajikistan-Kazakhstan)
Dir. Iskandar Usmonov
Pros. Diana Ashimova, Yerlan Ibragim, Iskandar Usmonov
Prodco. A Team
The Bird Chaser (China)
Dir. Zeng Zhi
Pros. Li Tianyu, Joey Zhu Yinying
Prodco. Beijing Pinwu Cultural Communication Co., Ltd.
The Circumciser (Phil)
Dir. Jun Robles Lana
Pros. Perci Intalan, Ferdy Lapuz
Prodco. The IdeaFirst Company
Dead Tide (Malay)
Dir. Kethsvin Chee
Pros. Lee Sinje, Jin Ong
Prodco. Fast Forward Films Sdn Bhd
Drive South Pray West (Thai)
Dirs. Panu Aree, Kong Rithdee
Pro. Panu Aree
Prodco. Drive South Pray West Pictures
Giant Salamander (China)
Dir. Yang Heng
Pro. Yang Heng
Prodco. Xiangxi Meixi Space Culture Media Co.
Gone With The Wind (China) *^
Dir. Zhao Yanming
Pro. Aubrey Zheng Liyan
Prodco. Beijing Daxiwang Culture Media Co., Ltd.
Indigo Boy (Tai) *
Dir. Bill Chia
Pros. Yeh Ju-Feng, Ivy Y.H. Chiang
Prodco. Fragrant Creative Integration Co., Ltd.
Innocent Flesh (China) *^
Dir. Lin Yihan
Pros. Li Yuwen, Hattie Yu
Prodco. Vast Vista Films
Lanka (India)
Dir. Saurav Rai
Pros. Saurav Rai, Ankita Purkayastha
Prodco. Neonate Audio LLP
Mabui (Japan)
Dir. Fukunaga Takeshi
Pros. Yamaguchi Shin, Eric Nyari
Prodcos. Knockonwood Inc., Cineric Creative
Open Fire (HK)
Dirs. Sze Pak-lam, Lau Wing-tai
Pro. Ivan Wong
Prodco. Scene One Picture Limited
Pivot (Turkey)
Dir. Melisa Önel
Pro. Alara Hamamcioğlu Bayraktar
Prodco. Vigo Film
Republic Of Mahalaxmi Apartment (India) *
Dir. Niladri Mukherjee
Pros. Aditya Vikram Sengupta, Priyankar Patra
Prodco. For Films
See You There (China-HK) *
Dir. Wong Yi-kwan
Pros. Wang Hongwei, Song Dafa
Prodco. Beijing Density Blue Film and Television Company
Seoulers (S Kor-US)
Dirs. Hee Young Pyun, Jiajun Oscar Zhang
Pros. Heejung Oh, Huang Yue, Christine Shen
Prodco. Seesaw Pictures
Somatization (China) *^
Dir. Sun Xiao
Pros. Wang Hongwei, Song Dafa, Lyu Hang
Prodco. Beijing Granary Film Culture Co., Ltd.
Something In The Way (HK) *^
Dir. Fan Ka-chun
Pro. Lam Suk-yin
Prodco. Loudprovision
A Stranger At My Door (HK-China)
Dir. Zheng Lu Xinyuan
Pro. Stanley Kwan Kam-pang
Waves Under The Sea (Macau-HK-China) *^
Dir. Chan Sileong
Pros. Chan Hing-kai, Robin Yung
Yellow (Japan)
Dir. Yamaura Miyoh
Pros. Kore-eda Hirokazu, Ohinata Jun
Prodco. Bunbuku
No comments yet