Hong Kong films shine in Atlanta Asian Film Festival

For more information, please contact:
Daniel McAtee at 202-238-6360
Melissa Ng / David Hsieh at 212-752-3320
Wing Yan Tong at 415-835-9315

August 27, 2009 - Hong Kong films are once again presented in an international film festival in the United States.

The 5th Atlanta Asian Film Festival, to be held between 9 and 17 October in Atlanta, Georgia, will feature two Hong Kong productions -- Kenneth Bi’s The Drummer and Derek Kwok’s The Pye-Dog -- alongside a selection of ten films representing China, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Taiwan. Hong Kong is the only place that will have two films featured in the festival.

At a press conference held today (August 27) in Atlanta to announce the festival details, Director of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, New York (HKETO) Monica Chen thanked the selection committee for attaching importance to Hong Kong films. She said, “The fact that Hong Kong has two films in the festival as against one from each of the other country/region is testimony to the special status Hong Kong has enjoyed in the international film circle.”

She noted that the creative industry played an important role in Hong Kong’s economy.

“Today, we have around 32,000 creative industry-related establishments, engaging more than 170,000 practitioners, creating an annual added value of more than US$7.7 billion to Hong Kong’s Gross domestic Product, or around 4 per cent of the our GDP.

“The Hong Kong government has always been highly supportive of our creative industries. With a view to upholding Hong Kong’s status as Asia’s creative hub, in June this year, the Hong Kong Government established the ‘Create Hong Kong’ office. Create Hong Kong is an agency dedicated to facilitating start-ups and nurturing of a pool of creative human capital.

“The agency manages the Film Services Office, the Film Development fund, and the Film Guarantee Fund. These three offices work together to provide supports for the film industry, including facilitating film productions in Hong Kong, promoting Hong Kong films locally and overseas, and providing financial support for film industry projects, including film productions.”

Ms Chen noted that Hong Kong had a main focus this year to introduce the next generation of 33 film makers. She said, “these film makers add to Hong Kong’s pool of existing talents, many of whom the U S audience were familiar with. They possess the flare, the vitality, and, most importantly, the vision to continue the robust development of our thriving creative film industry.”

With the concerted effort of HKETO, Hong Kong films have been shown in a Hong Kong film festival in Chicago in May and in the New York International Asian Film Festival in June. More exposures are expected in Chicago and Boston in the later part of 2009.