Winners of 2nd First Feature Film Initiative announced (with photos)

Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) today (January 8) announced the winners of the 2nd First Feature Film Initiative (FFFI). Two new directors and their production teams will receive funding from the Film Development Fund (FDF) to implement their winning film proposals and make their first commercial feature films.

Speaking at the award presentation ceremony, the Head of CCIDAHK, Mr Jerry Liu, said, "The FFFI has been well received since its launch in March 2013. Young directors, who see it as an opportunity to unveil their talents, have participated actively. The film industry has also rendered full support to the scheme, with veteran film practitioners giving help and guidance to the new directors and their production teams without expecting anything in return."

He thanked the industry for its contribution in making this new initiative a success in nurturing budding talent for the film industry.

Mr Liu said that the Government is committed to promoting the development of the local film industry. Besides financing small- to medium-budget film productions and supporting projects conducive to the development of the film industry through the FDF, a new Film Production Grant Scheme was launched in November last year to subsidise small-budget film productions with a production budget not exceeding $10 million.

He expressed the hope that all these measures would boost the quality and volume of local film productions, thereby creating more opportunities for newcomers and boosting the vibrancy of the industry.

The FFFI seeks to identify and nurture prospective film production talent through a competition focusing on screenplays and production proposals. In view of the success of the scheme, CreateHK launched the 2nd FFFI in March last year and raised the level of grant for the winning teams in both the Professional Group and the Higher Education Institution Group.

A total of 21 production teams signed up for the 2nd FFFI, with 12 teams participating in the Professional Group and nine teams in the Higher Education Institution Group. The winning entries are as follows:

Professional Group
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Film title: Love@TheSquare
Brief introduction: A story on a few young persons struggling between romantic love and pursuing their dreams
Director and scriptwriter: Chan Chit-man
Producer: Herman Yau

Higher Education Institution Group
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Film title: In Your Dream
Brief introduction: Revealing the dark side of two families and society through depicting a love story between a teacher and a student
Director and scriptwriter: Tam Wai-ching
Producers: Derek Chiu and Adam Tam

The winning teams of the Higher Education Institution Group and the Professional Group will receive a maximum of $3.25 million and $5.5 million respectively from the FDF to produce their films.

The winning teams are required to complete the whole film production and sales process, involving planning, shooting and distribution, and in the process acquire practical knowledge in making a feature film.

The three winning teams of the first FFFI have already completed film shooting. Their films are "Opus 1" (directed by Cheung King-wai) in the Professional Group, and "Weeds on Fire" (directed by Chan Chi-fat) and "Mad World" (directed by Wong Chun) in the Higher Education Institution Group.

Friday, January 8, 2016