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HKIFF Industry has announced the 17 projects selected for the In Development section of this year’s Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), including new projects produced by Singapore’s Anthony Chen, Hong Kong’s Stanley Kwan and Japan’s Eiko Mizuno-Gray.
Chen is producing Malaysian project Somewhere In The South, directed by Tan Ce Ding, about an aimless young man who gets caught up in a political campaign in a small Malaysian town. Kwan is reteaming with emerging director Sasha Chuk on drama 131, about two masseuses and a construction worker moving between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
Loaded Films’ Mizuno-Gray, who produced Cannes 2025 competition title Renoir, is working with Japan’s Toei Company on Life Is Yours from emerging director Emma Kawawada (My Small Land). The film narrates the revenge story of an elderly cleaner who plans to reclaim her stolen land at a ski resort in Niseko.
Other Hong Kong projects in the line-up include Vincci Cheuk’s intergenerational comedy 38.83, a co-production with Japan; Cheung Wai-yu’s comedy drama Mama Mia Let Me Go!; and Guo Yu-tian’s Forgetting She Is She, a story of conflicted identities and twisted love.
The line-up also includes Malayalam absurdist parable Fishers Of Men, from Sanju Surendran (If On A Winter’s Night), about a vegetarian banker who develops an obsession with fish; Funeral Flowers, the feature debut of Liza Diño and Ice Seguerra, about a politician’s daughter confronting estranged siblings and mistresses during her father’s wake; Paris-based Xiao Baer’s A Drop In The Sea, about an entrepreneurial Chinese woman travelling to Algeria for her brother’s funeral; and Emetjan Memet’s Xinjiang-set The Flower Seller, exploring the inner world of a depressed man whose whimsical encounters with a flower seller reignite his will to live.
HAF is taking place March 17-19 as part of HKIFF Industry, running alongside Hong Kong Filmart (March 17-20), at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. HKIFF Industry will also be announcing additional In Development projects, focusing on genre and animation, as well as Work-in-Progress projects, in coming weeks.
HAF IN DEVELOPMENT 2026:
*First Narrative Feature Projects
131 (Hong Kong)
Director: Sasha Chuk
Producer: Stanley Kwan Kam-pang
Production Company: The Flow of Words
38.83 (Hong Kong, Japan)
Director: Vincci Cheuk
Producer: Koga Shunsuke
Production Company: 2882 Prod Co
The Blue Breaks (Japan)
Director: Uchiyama Takuya
Producer: Satoh Naomi
Production Company: Differentia
A Drop In The Sea (China, Algeria, France)*
Director: Xiao Baer
Producers: Khir-Din Grid, Zhang Fan
Production Company: Nouvelle Toile, Bifun Pictures
Fishers Of Men (India)
Director: Sanju Surendran
Producers: Pramod Sankar, Rajeev Ravi, Kiran Kesav
Production Company: Cloud Door Films
The Flower Seller (China)
Director: Emetjan Memet
Producer: Wang Hongwei, Derek Zhang
Production Company: Wuhan Yidapai Culture Media Co
Forgetting She Is She (Hong Kong)*
Director: Guo Yu-tian
Producer: Chan Hing-kai
Production Company: People’s Productions
Funeral Flowers (Philippines)*
Directors: Liza Diño, Ice Seguerra
Producer: Krisma Fajardo
Production Company: Fire & Ice Media
The Funeral March (Japan, China)
Director: Fujita Naoya
Producers: Shiina Yasushi, Aiken Zou, Zou Lin, Fujita Kanako
Production Company: Y’s Ltd, Ahaverse
Have A Good Trip (China)*
Director: Xu Jianming
Producer: Bi Guangming
Production Company: Zhanyangfan Pictures (Hangzhou) Co
Heading South (China)*
Director: Yuan Yuan
Producer: Wang Jing
Production Company: TBC
Life Is Yours (Japan)
Director: Emma Kawawada
Producer: Takahashi Naoya, Eiko Mizuno-Gray
Production Company: Toei, Loaded Films
Mama Mia Let Me Go! (Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan)*
Director: Cheung Wai-yu
Producer: Peter Yam
Production Company: 70 Plus Production Company
My Phantom (China)
Director: Story Chen Jianying
Producers: Li Xiaoyuan
Production Company: Beijing Yingxi Culture Media Co
Somewhere In The South (Malaysia)*
Director: Tan Ce Ding
Producers: Anthony Chen, Edward Lim, Yap Khai Soon
Production Company: Giraffe Pictures
Stuck Like Babies (Zholdogu Bala) (Kyrgyzstan)
Director: Dastan Zhapar Ryskeldi
Producers: Veronica Rhyme, Fernanda Renno, Florence Stern
Production Company: Kyrgyzfilm
Vulnerable Observer (Hong Kong, China, Malaysia)
Director: Jiang Xiaoxuan
Producers: Zhao Ziyang
Production Company: Huniche Pictures
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