The road ahead for HK films

Producers and distributors from around the world will focus on Hong Kong next week. Hong Kong International Film and TV Market (Filmart) — the annual content marketplace that focuses firmly on the business of making movies — returns to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from Monday through Thursday.

Chinese-language cinema is seemingly in rude health; if only the box-office takings of a few hit films were a true reflection of the general picture. This past year has seen a string of movies that broke box-office records here in Hong Kong and on the Chinese mainland.

The Anselm Chan-directed funeral home-set drama, The Last Dance, is now Hong Kong's biggest domestic hit, with takings of HK$158 million ($20.34 million), while Ne Zha 2 — director Yu Yang's continuation of the story of a plucky demon child and his life's trials and tribulations — is the biggest animated hit of all time, anywhere, with earnings of more than $2 billion globally.

So the thinking might be that everything is rosy on the ground in these parts, though overall figures paint a different picture.

Box-office receipts in Hong Kong were down 6 percent year-on-year to HK$6.1 billion in 2024, while on the mainland there was a 23 percent drop to 42.5 billion yuan ($5.87 billion). Apparently, the industry is struggling to meet the expectations of an audience less likely to visit a cinema and increasingly inclined to be seduced by what the streamers have to offer.

"The problem - universally - is finding the funds needed to get films made, when the market is in such decline," says Jacob Wong, who heads the Hong Kong International Film Festival Industry Office, the organization that coordinates such initiatives as the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), which runs as a Filmart sidebar.

"Realistically, it's very difficult for a city of 7.5 million people to support and sustain a film industry. You don't have the population. But what you can do is to nurture film culture."

Wong points to the fact that certain European governments are by law required to support cinema through funding and various subsidies - a practice that Hong Kong might consider emulating. "I don't know if the Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region) government is willing to go down that road because while there's some thinking that we once had a glorious industry, so why can't we have it again, that may not happen because the circumstances have changed so much."

What Filmart brings to the party is a platform for filmmakers to showcase what they have already made, or are in the process of making, but also — through the HAF — a place where filmmakers can present their projects and hopefully, pick up some of the funds needed to actually get their films made.

This year the 23rd edition of the initiative is offering 24 cash and inkind prizes across 20 in-progress film development categories, with a value exceeding $250,000.

The international festival circuit is still buzzing about the HAF-supported rural drama Living the Land, which picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director for Huo Meng at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival in February.
It's a fine example of how far a film can go, given the right kind of support.

"What you make has to be good, and then you need a little luck to win an award," says Wong. "We have a lineup which I think is pretty good, but more needs to be done with young filmmakers."