The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (HKIFFS) has revealed the first wave of 17 in-development projects selected for the 24th Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF).
HAF is set to take place from March 17-19 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre during the 30th Hong Kong Filmart.
Scroll down for full list of projects
The line-up features established filmmakers such as Stanley Kwan, Anthony Chen, Eiko Mizuno-Gray and Yasushi Shiina who mentor as producers, as well as emerging directors such as Sasha Chuk, Story Chen Jianying and Emma Kawawada.
This year’s IDP comrpised 414 submissions from 38 countries and regions. Asian entries accounted for 82% of the submissions. The selected projects represent diverse cultural perspectives, covering genres from comedy and fantasy to suspense and romance. HKIFFS will announce further in-development projects that focus on animation and genre titles – as well as work-in-progress titles – in the coming weeks.
Several projects carry a strong Hong Kong flavour. Director Sasha Chuk and her Fly Me To The Moon producer Stanley Kwan reunite on 131, a drama about two masseuses and a construction worker who move between Shenzhen and Hong Kong to reshape their future.
Vital Signs director Vincci Cheuk collaborates with Small, Slow But Steady Japanese producer Koga Shunsuke on 38.83, a comedy about a 38-year-old woman who reconnects with her 83-year-old grandmother on an overseas trip.
TV series writer-turned-director Cheung Wai-yu and Sunny Side Of The Street producer Peter Yam have Mama Mia Let Me Go!, a comedy drama about a young woman who connects her mother with a young beau, just to escape her controlling parents.
Fantasy titles include Fishers Of Men by Sanju Surendran (If On A Winter’s Night), a Malayalam absurdist parable set along Kerala’s coast and about an Indian vegetarian banker’s sudden obsession with fish; and Xinjiang-set The Flower Seller by Emetjan Memet (Good Drink Pub) centres on a depressed man whose will to live is rekindled through the whimsical title character.
Projects that deal with bereavement include A Drop In The Sea – produced by Zhang Fan (Living The Land, 2025 Berlinale Silver Bear winner) for Paris-based director Xiao Baer – which follows a Chinese woman who travels to Algeria for her brother’s Muslim funeral; Funeral Flowers, the feature debut of Liza Diño and Ice Seguerra, which takes place in a chapel during the wake of a political patriarch, where his daughter must confront estranged siblings and mistresses.
Further titles on the subject include The Funeral March – produced by TIFFCOM CEO Yasushi Shiina for director Naoya Fujita (whose Confetti was 2023 Skip City International D-Cinema Festival’s opening film) – and depicts how a recluse steals her mother’s dead body and ventures into snowy Hokkaido to fulfil a burial promise; and Life Is Yours – produced by Takahashi Naoya of Toei Company for director Emma Kawawada (My Small Land) – which tells the revenge story of an elderly cleaner eager to reclaim her stolen land at a ski resort in Niseko.
Award-winning short filmmakers are among the selection making their feature debut. Have A Good Trip by Xu Jianming, whose Crow was Shanghai’s best live-action short film winner last year, weaves seven strange tales together in a small town; while My Phantom by Story Chen Jianying, whose The Water Murmurs won the 2022 Cannes Palme d’Or for shorts, creates a dreamlike journey through Kyoto as a Chinese writer encounters a man who resembles her late fiancé.
Further feature debut projects include Forgetting She Is She – produced by Chan Hing-kai for Guo Yu-tian – which is a story of twisted love with a writer mistaking her stalker for her lost sibling; Yuan Yuan’s Heading South, which follows a 13-year-old Mongolian girl who feels torn between her traditional roots and the appeal of K-pop dance and city life; and Somewhere In The South, produced by Cannes Camera d’Or winner Anthony Chen for Tan Ce Ding, which centres on an aimless young man swept up in a political campaign in a small Malaysian town.
Rounding out the HAF IDP selection are: The Blue Breaks from Takuya Uchiyama, whose Tokyo Filmex-winning Numb will make an international premiere at Berlinale’s Panorama, which is based on a novel by Ryohei Machiya about the life of a Japanese drifter born through sperm donation; Stuck Like Babies by Dastan Zhapar Ryskeldi (Deal At The Border), a comedy drama about the unlikely bond between a hardened Kyrgyz commander and a compassionate Tajik doctor when a baby of unknown nationality is found at a tense border; and Vulnerable Observer by Jiang Xiaoxuan (To Kill A Mongolian Horse, 2024 HKIFF Firebird Award winner), which follows an anthropologist travelling to the Mongolian region to seek academic research breakthrough until a local guide’s hidden agenda becomes a roadblock.
HAFF In-Development Projects 2026
* First narrative feature projects
^ HAF Film Lab projects
131 (HK)
Dir. Sasha Chuk
Pro. Stanley Kwan
Prodco. The Flow of Words Limited
38.83 (HK-Japan)
Dir. Vincci Cheuk
Pro. Koga Shunsuke
Prodco. 2882 ProdCo Limited
The Blue Breaks (Japan)
Dir. Takuya Uchiyama
Pro. Naomi Satoh
Prodco. Differentia
A Drop in the Sea (China-Alg-Fr) *
Dir. Xiao Baer
Pros. Khir-Din Grid, Zhang Fan
Prodco. Nouvelle Toile, Bifun Pictures
Fishers Of Men (India)
Dir. Sanju Surendran
Pros. Pramod Sankar, Rajeev Ravi, Kiran Kesav
Prodco. Cloud Door Films
The Flower Seller (China)
Dir. Emetjan Memet
Pro. Wang Hongwei, Derek Zhang
Prodco. Wuhan Yidapai Culture Media Co., Ltd.
Forgetting She Is She (HK) *^
Dir. Guo Yu-tian
Pro. Chan Hing-kai
Prodco. People’s Productions Ltd.
Funeral Flowers (Phil) *
Dirs. Liza Diño, Ice Seguerra
Pro. Krisma Fajardo
Prodco. Fire & Ice Media
The Funeral March (Japan-China)
Dir. Naoya Fujita
Pros. Yasushi Shiina, Aiken Zou, Zou Lin, Kanako Fujita
Prodco. Y’S Ltd., Ahaverse
Have A Good Trip (China) *
Dir. Xu Jianming
Pro. Bi Guangming
Prodco. Zhanyangfan Pictures (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd.
Heading South (China) *^
Dir. Yuan Yuan
Pro. Wang Jing
Life is Yours (Japan)
Dir. Emma Kawawada
Pro. Takahashi Naoya, Eiko Mizuno-Gray
Prodco. Toei, Loaded Films
Mama Mia Let Me Go! (HK-S Kor-Tai) *^
Dir. Cheung Wai-yu
Pro. Peter Yam
Prodco. 70 Plus Production Company Limited
My Phantom (China)
Dir. Story Chen Jianying
Pros. Li Xiaoyuan
Prodco. Beijing Yingxi Culture Media Co., Ltd.
Somewhere in the South (Malay) *^
Dir. Tan Ce Ding
Pros. Anthony Chen, Edward Lim, Yap Khai Soon
Prodco. Giraffe Pictures
Stuck Like Babies (Zholdogu Bala) (Kyrg)
Dir. Dastan Zhapar Ryskeldi
Pros. Veronica Rhyme, Fernanda Renno, Florence Stern
Prodco. Kyrgyzfilm
Vulnerable Observer (HK-China-Malay)
Dir. Jiang Xiaoxuan
Pros. Zhao Ziyang
Prodco. Huniche Pictures
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