They loved Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. This scheme will show world a new generation of Hong Kong filmmakers
- Hong Kong cinema is famous for martial arts, crime and gangster films. A new scheme hopes to introduce to the world a new wave of filmmakers from the city
- Many recent Hong Kong films have been aimed at the Chinese market. The idea is that it’s time to show the rest of the world what Hong Kong cinema is capable of
In 1982, having just accepted his Oscar for best screenplay for the film Chariots of Fire, in Los Angeles, Colin Welland famously and impertinently declared, “The British are coming!” (The phrase supposedly originated with American revolutionary hero Paul Revere, almost certainly a myth.)
Dr Wilfred Wong Ying-wai isn’t about to make such a bold claim on behalf of Hong Kong’s filmmakers – although, arguably, he would be entitled to.
As chairman of the Hong Kong Film Development Council (FDC), Wong is at the vanguard of a drive to introduce Hong Kong cinema to the world through the Hong Kong-Europe-Asian Film Collaboration Funding Scheme.
The scheme is an extension of another, the Hong Kong-Asian Film Collaboration Funding Scheme, launched in November 2022 to facilitate co-productions by Hong Kong filmmakers and counterparts elsewhere in Asia.
The Hong Kong-Asian scheme attracted 28 applications; the four productions selected for FDC support, which will each receive US$1.1 million, will be announced this month. (The call for proposals for the Hong Kong-Europe-Asian scheme will begin soon; details can be found at fdc.gov.hk.)