Stanley Kwan, Anthony Chen Among Producers for Hong Kong HAF’s First Lineup of 17 In-Development Projects

The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (HKIFF) has unveiled the initial slate of 17 in-development projects selected for the 24th edition of the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), set to take place March 17-19 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The projects, currently in scriptwriting and financing stages, will be presented as part of the HKIFF Industry Project Market, running concurrent with the 30th Hong Kong International Film & TV Market. Additional selections focusing on genre, animation and work-in-progress projects will be announced in coming weeks.

HKIFFS drew from 414 submissions spanning 38 countries and regions for this year’s forum, with Asian entries comprising 82% of the total. Submissions originated from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Macau, Mainland China, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The lineup showcases emerging talent alongside established industry figures serving as producers. New directors including Sasha Chuk, Story Chen Jianying and Emma Kawawada are featured, while veteran filmmakers Stanley Kwan, Anthony Chen and Shiina Yasushi take on producing roles.

Among the Hong Kong-flavored projects, Chuk and Kwan reunite for “131” following their collaboration on “Fly Me to the Moon,” which played at Tokyo International Film Festival in 2023. The drama follows two masseuses and a construction worker navigating their futures between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

Vincci Cheuk, whose “Vital Signs” closed the 2023 HKIFF, teams with Japanese producer Koga Shunsuke on “38.83,” an intergenerational comedy tracking a 38-year-old woman’s unexpected bond with her 83-year-old grandmother during an unavoidable journey. Koga produced “Small, Slow but Steady,” which played at the 2022 Berlinale.

TV series writer-turned-director Cheung Wai-yu collaborates with Peter Yam, producer of Golden Horse Awards winner “Sunny Side of the Street,” on comedy-drama “Mama Mia Let Me Go!” The project centers on a young woman organizing a meeting between her mother and a young beau to escape her restrictive home environment.

Chan Hing-kai produces Guo Yu-tian’s “Forgetting She is She,” a narrative exploring conflicted identities as a writer mistakes her stalker for her lost sibling, confronting a past involving a long-buried murder.

Fantasy and absurdist entries include Sanju Surendran’s Malayalam parable “Fishers of Men,” produced by Pramod Sankar, Rajeev Ravi and Kiran Kesav. The project follows an Indian vegetarian banker whose transcendent transformation begins with an inexplicable obsession with fish. Surendran’s “If on a Winter’s Night” screened at Busan in 2025.

Xu Jianming, whose short “Crow” won Best Live-Action Short Film at Shanghai 2025, presents “Have a Good Trip,” produced by Bi Guangming. The project weaves seven strange tales through eerie small-town characters including a doctor confined to his clinic for decades and a man claiming ants inhabit his ears.

Set in Xinjiang, Emetjan Memet’s “The Flower Seller,” produced by Wang Hongwei and Derek Zhang, explores a depressed man’s inner world as whimsical encounters with a flower seller reignite his will to live.

Projects examining love and bereavement include “A Drop in the Sea,” produced by Khir-Din Grid and Zhang Fan for Paris-based director Xiao Baer. Zhang produced “Living the Land,” which won the Silver Bear at the 2025 Berlinale. The narrative follows an entrepreneurial Chinese woman traveling to Algeria for her brother’s Muslim funeral, discovering previously unknown aspects of his life.

Liza Diño and Ice Seguerra’s feature debut “Funeral Flowers,” produced by Krisma Fajardo, unfolds entirely during a political patriarch’s wake, where his daughter confronts estranged siblings and mistresses amid public spectacle.

Takahashi Naoya of Toei Company and Eiko Mizuno-Gray produce Emma Kawawada’s “Life is Yours,” a revenge story featuring an elderly cleaner planning to reclaim her stolen land at a Niseko ski resort. Kawawada’s “My Small Land” played at the 2022 Berlinale.

Story Chen Jianying, whose short “The Water Murmurs” won the Palme d’Or for shorts at Cannes 2022, directs “My Phantom,” produced by Li Xiaoyuan. The project takes its characters on a dreamlike journey through Kyoto as a Chinese writer encounters a man resembling her late fiancé, lost on their wedding day.

TIFFCOM chief Shiina Yasushi, alongside Aiken Zou, Zou Lin and Fujita Kanako, produces Fujita Naoya’s “The Funeral March,” highlighting a reclusive woman who steals her mother’s corpse and ventures into Hokkaido’s snowy landscape to fulfill a burial promise. Fujita’s “Confetti” opened the 2023 Skip City International D-Cinema Festival.

Border-themed projects include Yuan Yuan’s debut feature “Heading South,” produced by Wang Jing, introducing a 13-year-old Mongolian girl torn between traditional roots and K-pop dance culture. Wang produced “Are You Lonesome Tonight?,” which screened at Cannes 2021.

Anthony Chen, who won the Cannes Camera d’Or for “Ilo Ilo,” produces Tan Ce Ding’s “Somewhere in the South” alongside Edward Lim and Yap Khai Soon. The project centers on an aimless young man caught up in a political campaign during a Malaysian town’s by-election.

Dastan Zhapar Ryskeldi’s “Stuck Like Babies,” produced by Veronica Rhyme, Fernanda Renno and Florence Stern, follows a hardened Kyrgyz commander forming an unlikely bond with a compassionate Tajik doctor after discovering a baby of unknown nationality at a tense border. Ryskeldi’s “Deal at the Border” screened at Busan 2024.

Uchiyama Takuya, whose “Numb” won the Special Jury Prize at Tokyo Filmex 2025, adapts Ryohei Machiya’s novel “The Blue Breaks,” produced by Satoh Naomi. The project portrays a Japanese drifter born through sperm donation who gradually reconnects with his surroundings through encounters with strangers and an old lover.

Jiang Xiaoxuan’s “Vulnerable Observer,” produced by Zhao Ziyang, follows an anthropologist traveling to the Mongolian region for research breakthroughs, only to question her local guide’s initially friendly motives. Jiang won the HKIFF Firebird Award in 2024 for “To Kill a Mongolian Horse.”