Project Market Winners Unveiled as Online Meetings Soar – HAF

Patrick Frater
·2 min read

Colleen Kwok’s “The Stars The Sun The Moon” won the top prize for a Hong Kong-produced in-development project at the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum. Mainland Chinese title “Not Found” by Huang Ningwei won the equivalent prize for the best non-Hong Kong project.

A total of 14 prizes were announced at a virtual ceremony on Wednesday, with “Silent Ghosts,” another local project, directed by Hang Yeng, collecting the top work in progress award.

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HAF organizers said that this year’s online platform hosted more than 900 private meetings between filmmakers and potential backers, a figure that was almost double the level of activity in 2020, when COVID forced the project market into a virtual format for the first time.

The third time it has been staged remotely, HAF this year hosted 43 projects, including 15 works-in-progress. There were also 11 Hong Kong projects, with 21 filmmakers presenting their debut feature projects. The event ran for three days (March 14-16, 2022) in parallel with the Hong Kong-based FilMart rights market.

“The Stars The Sun The Moon” tells a tale of female friendship that supernaturally flips between 1998 and 2018. “Not Found” is a both a road movie and a story about story-telling as a screenwriter embarks on a journey to get closer to his characters. Work-in-progress “Silent Ghosts” is the story of a mysterious woman who many people claim to have met under different circumstances.

HAF 2022 Winners List
IDP Award for a Hong Kong project
“The Stars The Sun The Moon,” dir. Colleen Kwok Tung-Shuen.

IDP Award for a non-Hong Kong project
“Not Found” by Huang Ningwei (Mainland China).

WIP Award
“Silent Ghosts” dir. Yang Heng (Hong Kong).

Taipei Film Commission Award
“I Might Write About Us” dir. Jun Li (Hong Kong/Taiwan).

Wouter Barendrecht Award
“Don’t Cry, Butterfly” dir. Duong Dieu Linh (Vietnam).

Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF) Award
“The Cursed Land” dir. Panu Aree and Kong Rithdee (Thailand).

Udine Focus Asia Award
“Don’t Cry, Butterfly” dir. Duong Dieu Linh (Vietnam).

White Light Post Post-Production Award for an IDP project
“Cubs” dir. Riri Riza (Indonesia).

White Light Post Post-Production Award for a WIP project
“A Room Of His Own” dir. Matan Yair (Israel/Italy).

HAF Goes to Cannes Program (five titles)
“A Room of His Own,” “Silent Ghosts,” “The Spark” by Rajesh S. Jala (India), “The Sunny Side of the Street” by Lau Kok Rui (Hong Kong), “The Vessel’s Isle” by Wang Di (Mainland China).

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