Opening night of Hong Kong Film Gala Presentation
September 29,2023
We had a heart-warming Mid-Autumn Festival as over 100 cinephiles gathered in a reception and enjoyed the private screening of “Over My Dead Body”, a black comedy brought by the Asian Film Awards Academy in collaboration with Singapore Film Society under the financial support of Create Hong Kong and Film Development Fund, in its Singapore premiere.
The film marked the opening of the Hong Kong Film Gala Presentation, an unrivalled showcase of seven Hong Kong films crystallizing the boundless creativity of Hong Kong’s young generation of talented filmmakers, covering diverse genres from comedy, thriller to documentary as they dissected various facets of human nature and social phenomena.
A vivid tale of the expensive property market in Hong Kong, "Over My Dead Body" explores how various neighbours in a residential building reacted when one family found an anonymous naked dead body lying at their doorstep. To prevent their property’s value from nosediving, they decided to pass the buck to their neighbour. After the private screening, the film’s director Mr Ho Cheuk-Tin, executive producer and screenwriter Ms Amy Chin, and 16th Asian Film Awards awardee Mr Mak Pui-tung further engaged the audience in a lighthearted dialogue session to share their experiences in filmmaking.
With HK$7.6 million out of HK$18.8 million budget financed by the Film Development Fund, “Over My Dead Body” is a testament of the Hong Kong SAR Government’s relentless efforts in nurturing talent and supporting filmmaking, in the firm belief that creative industries are part and parcel of a vibrant economy. Last year it launched the Hong Kong-Asian Film Collaboration Funding Scheme and Content Development Scheme for Streaming Platforms to strengthen capacity-building of the industry. The former scheme subsidises film projects co-produced by filmmakers from Hong Kong and Asian countries up to HK$9 million each film. The latter selects through a competition winning scripts for mini-series on streaming platforms, with up to HK$5.7 million subsidy for script development and production. These two new initiatives augment the existing Directors’ Succession Scheme, First Feature Film Initiative, and Film Production Financing Scheme as we continue to support budding filmmakers and build Hong Kong as Asia’s creative capital.
Promoting cross-sectoral collaboration is at the heart of our policy. Apart from film screenings, the Hong Kong Film Gala Presentation also featured a lively Stage to Screen: Regional New Actor's Forum as actors from various regions shared their career pivot from dramas to films and the challenges and opportunities behind. They included Hong Kong's Mak Pui-tung, Malaysia's Season Chee, and Singapore’s Xuan Ong and Doreen Toh.
A non-profit organisation founded by Busan, Hong Kong and Tokyo International Film Festivals with the shared goal of celebrating excellence in Asian cinema, the Asian Films Awards Academy will continue to expand the footprint of Hong Kong cinema in overseas countries. After the Singapore stop, the Hong Kong Film Gala Presentation will travel to Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and Dubai in 2023/2024. It also regularly holds the Masterclass Series to promote conversations between Asian filmmaker, film critic and the public. This year it features Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, who has recently received the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival and the esteemed Outstanding Contribution to Asian Film Award at the 16th Asian Film Awards. For more details, please check here.
