Hong Kong FilMart to Return to March Dates as All-Digital Event
Hong Kong FilMart will be held as a virtual market for the second time in 2021, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. But the dates will be shifted back to their usual March slot.
FilMart Online will take place from March 15 to 18, 2021, organizers the Hong Kong Trade Development Council announced on Tuesday.
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The physical edition of the 202 rights market was postponed from March to new dates in August. When that proved too optimistic, the fair was turned into an online-only affair.
The TDC says that the Aug. 2020 event presented more than 2,100 film and TV productions, and was attended by nearly 7,000 executives from 73 countries, with more than 2,000 online business matching meetings. Despite the difficulty of time zones, nearly 20% came from outside Asia.
Organizers vowed to make the 2021 event more international, bringing more global players on board, with a theme to map out the industry’s recovery in the post-COVID-19 era.
The 2021 edition of FilMart will take place barely 10 days after the end of Berlin’s European Film Market, which will also be held as an online-only event.
The public health situation in Hong Kong had been under control until the territory was hit by a fourth wave of the coronavirus outbreak in late November, when new infections hit 100 per day.
Many of the recent cases have been linked to a so-called “dance club cluster,” involving wealthy women and socialites who are passionate fans of ballroom dancing. The cluster is known to have been responsible for over 730 infections.
As of Tuesday, Hong Kong has recorded 8,238 cases since the beginning of the year, and 131 deaths.
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