The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (HKIFFS) has completed its 2025 HKIFF Industry Project Market lineup by unveiling eight additional titles today. This brings the total number of featured projects to 48, the highest in recent years.
The new additions include six feature projects for its inaugural animation showcase, including works by Liu Jian (Art College 1994) and Toe Yuen (My Life as McDull), and two projects in a unique Indonesian showcase, further expanding the scope of the 2025 HKIFF Industry Project Market. These projects join the 40 in-development projects and works-in-progress previously announced for the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF).
The HKIFF Industry Project Market will be held from 17 to 19 March 2025 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, alongside the 29th Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FILMART).
According to HKIFFS, there has been a 60% surge in animation submissions since last year, reflecting the industry’s rapid growth in the region. Three works-in-progress are among the six feature projects shortlisted for the inaugural animation showcase.
“Outstanding animated projects from previous HAF editions, such as Liu Jian’s second Berlinale entry, Art College 1994, and Yee Chih-yen’s Golden Horse Award winner, City of Lost Things, have instilled in us the conviction to showcase and promote promising talents and projects through this new animation initiative,” said Jacob Wong, Director of HKIFF Industry.
Meanwhile, the HKIFF Industry Project Market will collaborate with Jakarta Film Week (JFW) to launch a new section titled Jakarta Film Week Projects, showcasing the in-development projects of two emerging Indonesian filmmakers.
According to JFW Festival Director Rina Damayanti, Indonesian cinema has flourished recently, garnering awards and acclaim on the international festival circuit.
“Through this collaboration with HKIFF Industry, we hope to enhance the visibility of Indonesian projects on the international stage and help them find production and investment partners and global distribution opportunities,” she said.
ANIMATION HIGHLIGHTS
Three of the six selected animation feature projects are works-in-progress. They will participate in HAF’s WIP Open Pitch Session on 17 March 2025 at Starlight Theatre, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
- A Mighty Adventure by Toe Yuen is about three tiny insects – a grasshopper, a spider, and a butterfly – who dare to break boundaries and choose their future. Hong Kong director Yuen shot the entire film live in Taiwan, with 90% of the computer animation performed in Malaysia. Yuen is best known for My Life as McDull, the best film winner at France’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2003.
- MIN by Li Jiajia chronicles the struggles of a 40-year-old woman trapped in a mundane marriage who must make an important decision about her future before she is past her childbearing age. Li, born in Hangzhou, is a professor at the School of Animation and Games of the China Academy of Art. Award-winning director Liu Jian, whose Have a Nice Day and Art College 1994 were both in competition in Berlin, serves as producer.
- Inspired by his childhood summers spent with his brother, Wildheart by Marceau Nakayama is a coming-of-age drama about two young orphans who rely on one another while searching for their families in 1960s Tokyo. Nakayama, a Tokyo-born art director and concept artist now based in France, grew up in post-bubble Japan before moving abroad. Justin Ambrosino serves as the producer.
Three projects currently in development complete the animation showcase:
- Cloud of the Unknown by Gao Yuan follows two dreamers as they share secrets about their strange worlds, ultimately questioning their own existence. Kunming-born Gao is an artist and animation creator who has exhibited her works internationally. Her eponymous animated short film premiered at Locarno in 2020, where it received the Arte Laguna prize. Isabelle Glachant serves as the producer.
- Triparna Maiti’s The Tale of the Holy Beast recounts the journey of the captivity and lost childhood of a four-year-old elephant trained to be a circus performer before becoming a star temple elephant bound by heavy chains. The project was previously selected for Mifa Pitches at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Mumbai-based Maiti’s previous works include Water in 2022, her diploma film that screened in Anifilm and Monstra.
- Light Pillar, directed by Xu Zao and produced by actor-director Da Peng, is a romantic comedy-drama about a film studio’s janitor who navigates a romantic relationship with a woman in the virtual world, unaware that she is a 10-year-old boy in the real world. Xu’s 43- minute animation, No Changes Have Taken in Our Life, won the Golden Dove at DOK Leipzig.
INDONESIAN BUZZ
- First Breath After Coma, by Jason Iskandar, follows three Chinese Indonesian siblings torn between their dilemmas and family obligations as their father lies in a coma in the late 1990s, during Indonesia’s political transition. Jason is a Jakarta-born Chinese Indonesian filmmaker whose first feature, Akhirat: A Love Story, was the 15th highest-grossing film in Indonesia in 2021.
- Fly! by Pelixiano is an animated family adventure that follows a young boy on a mystical journey to the afterlife, where he befriends a spirit creature in his quest to find his late father. Pelixiano has 18 years of experience in game development.