Exhibition puts works on global stage

The return of the hustle and bustle at media promotion events in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region showed worldwide investors that the city, reviving from the COVID-19 pandemic, is reestablishing itself as a hub for film and TV works, which will allow more high-quality Chinese productions to go global.

Industry practitioners and investors from across the world swarmed to Hong Kong in mid-March to attend a series of events related to the development of film and TV sectors. Among them was the Hong Kong International Film and TV Market, also known as Filmart. As Asia's largest trading market of film and TV productions, the cross-media content trading exhibition returned to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre this year, after being held virtually over the past three years.

The event, which took place from March 13-16, assembled more than 7,300 industry figures from 41 countries and regions, according to the event's organizer Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Over 330 companies from the Chinese mainland attended Filmart this year, the most in its history, with businesses covering films, TV dramas and animations and 31 companies brought 76 released or in-production movies, including this year's blockbusters The Wandering Earth II and Full River Red, to the event.

The movies were showcased at a designated joint exhibition stand set up by the China Film Co-Production Corp to promote Chinese films. The company also provided one-on-one meetings, online promotions, themed videos and bilingual booklets that introduce overseas investors to the development of Chinese films and policies of coproducing movies with Chinese mainland partners.

A host of mainland provinces and cities also set up pavilions at the fair to promote locally made movies and TV works. At the Guangdong pavilion, around 40 local film and TV production companies, including internet giant Tencent and renowned animation producer Fantawild, launched more than 20 news conferences and promotion activities. The companies reached cooperation and intention agreements on more than 30 projects with over 120 domestic and overseas organizations.

Film and TV enterprises from Ningbo, Zhejiang province, signed three contracts worth a record value of 45 million yuan ($6.5 million) on the first day of the expo. Two of them were signed between Ningbo's Plang Pictures and Thailand's Neramitnung Film, and India's Sunshine Film, respectively, over coproduction projects.

Besides the Filmart, a conference discussing the latest trends and opportunities in the film and TV industries, EntertainmentPulse, was staged in conjunction with Filmart. Another long-standing movie event in the city, the Hong Kong International Film Festival, also fully resumed offline activities this year, running from March 30 to April 10. The Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum was held from March 13-15, which is a vital platform for movie producers to seek funding.

Cecil Yow Hon-hung, chief operation officer of the Emperor Motion Pictures — a major movie producer and distributor in Hong Kong, said Filmart, which has been held since 1997 and enjoys an international reputation, is an ideal stage for high-quality mainland productions to go global.

Yow's company is in charge of the overseas distribution of The Wandering Earth II, a mainland science-fiction blockbuster that had raked in more than $570 million at the box offices worldwide by late February. During Filmart, the film's production team, including director Guo Fan and leading actors Wu Jing and Andy Lau Tak-wah, shared stories of making the movie with global investors and media outlets.

Yow said such a face-to-face sharing session was rare even before the pandemic, adding that it offered a great opportunity for potential investors to know how the movie was created, which may increase their interests in and confidence on the production and prompt them to promote the film in more overseas areas.

Alexander Yeung Ching-loong, vice-chairman of Emperor Group, EMP's mother company, said in an interview ahead of Filmart that the overseas theatrical release of The Wandering Earth II in the Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia and Singapore was a good chance to showcase the advancement of Chinese movie technologies and the Chinese way of solving global crises to the world.

Yeung also said the gist of the movie echoes much of President Xi Jinping's vision of building "a community with a shared future for mankind". He said he hoped to bring more high-quality mainland movies to the audience in Hong Kong and overseas markets in the future.

Hong Kong veteran filmmaker Tenky Tin Kai-man said in an interview in January that although Hong Kong market is of limited scale, the international platform can help expand movie productions' influence across Asia.

Tin added that many foreign blockbusters had their premieres in Hong Kong, instead of other international cities, to create greater influences in neighboring markets such as Southeast Asia.

The release in Hong Kong also helped some high-quality mainland films gain reputation in overseas markets and win international awards.

He hopes more mainland movies can be introduced to Hong Kong, which will not only help with the promotion of mainland films, but also offer more diversified choices for Hong Kong audiences.

Bonnie Jia, a TV series producer who flew to Hong Kong from Beijing to attend the four-day expo, was excited to see Filmart return physically after a three-year hiatus. She said by showcasing both good movies and TV series, the Filmart has provided comprehensive content that satisfies the taste of a wide range of audiences. Visitors can also reach out to exhibitors from every section of the videography production in one go, she added.

Jia was also impressed by the diversified mainland productions at the event, which included not only stories about Chinese history and traditional culture, but also works reflecting the mainland's economic development and the striving and innovative spirits of Chinese people.

"Many outstanding works from Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong province at the trade show also reflect the flourishing development of cultural industries in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area," Jia added.

Hong Kong young director Norris Wong Yee-lam brought her movie project The Mermaid's Tale to seek funding at the film-financing forum. Wong's debut movie My Prince Edward helped her win "best new director" at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2020. She now regularly commutes between Hong Kong and Taiwan and works on projects in both places.

Wong said Hong Kong's extensive connections with international and mainland markets have made it an ideal platform for moviemakers to seek financing.

She believes Hong Kong filmmakers' decadeslong experience on movie production and the closer communication and exchanges with counterparts in neighboring areas will help the city create more great works in the future.

"Hong Kong has always been good at producing commercial films, such as actions and crime thrillers," Wong said. But she also noticed that more local directors have made small-budget films with appealing stories, which have been well received in the local market. She was glad to see many locally made movies hit the box office over the recent years, and she is looking forward to seeing more great works produced by the local film industry.

In addition to promoting mainland movies, EMP also announced over a dozen local movie projects at Filmart. Yow said Hong Kong had seen a box-office boom over the past few years, with some homemade movies grossing tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars locally, a remarkable achievement for a city with 7.5 million residents.

Yow said Hong Kong's movie market is becoming more diverse. The city's production teams can work with mainland practitioners to coproduce high-budget action or police thrillers. They can also shoot feature films with local themes.

"Film production is always an art of storytelling, and the variety in genre is critical for the market's healthy development," Yow said.