Hong Kong Policy Address: HK$200m funding to local film projects for release in mainland China
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong filmmakers who wish to produce work for showcase in mainland China may apply for a new fund next year, as the government announced it would earmark HK$200 million to finance 20 local film projects to boost their chances of being released across the border.
The Hong Kong government is set to offer up to HK$10 million each to local filmmakers under the new Film Financing Scheme for Mainland Market, Chief Executive John Lee announced in his second Policy Address delivered on Wednesday.
The initiative, which is scheduled to launch in the first half of 2024, aimed to promote collaboration between Hong Kong directors and film companies with experience in the mainland Chinese market.
According to the address, the official funding also aimed to “provide incentives for attracting private sector capital and expanding new markets,” Lee said. Together with the HK$200 million set aside by the government, around HK$700 million is expected to be injected into the film market.
Government sources told HKFP on Wednesday that the fund would target film projects led by directors and producers who were Hong Kong permanent residents, with a budget between HK$25 million and HK$150 million. The fund would be handed out to the recipient in phases.
The new scheme may be more attractive to filmmakers who were already familiar with the complicated procedures of getting a green light from mainland Chinese authorities for a film to be released, said Kenny Ng, associate professor of the Academy of Film of the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU).
Those who were not familiar with the rules may need to rely heavily on middlemen, the scholar said.
Although the new funding was a good initiative for facilitating local films to be released in the mainland market, Hong Kong filmmakers may still face other obstacles when trying to showcase their work across the border. The film censorship system in mainland China was “very different” from that in the city, the HKBU scholar said in Cantonese.
“In mainland China, there are a lot of things you cannot predict. You don’t know if the screenplay will get approved or not. So do you stop filming if it does not get approved?” Ng asked.
The academic added the government should not only focus on financing the production of films. Public funding should also go into the promotional and publicity work after a film was made, he said.
“Perhaps a low budget local film was made already. If there is funding or a middleman to promote the film at international film festivals or other screening opportunities to earn more publicity, the effect may be more noticeable,” he said.
Support for Hong Kong-European cinema
The city’s leader on Wednesday also announced plans to modify the existing Hong Kong-Asian Film Collaborating Funding Scheme which subsidises film projects co-produced by local filmmakers and those from Asian countries.
The scheme will be expanded to support collaborations with European filmmakers, Lee said, with an aim of greenlighting four co-productions in the first quarter in 2025, including at least one production in Europe.
The HKBU scholar described the expansion as “exciting,” saying many foreign films were produced using a similar model. It also offered a chance for the brand of Hong Kong films to be integrated into a co-production, he said.
Hong Kong films have been subject to closer scrutiny since the city’s legislature amended the Film Censorship Ordinance in 2021, which allowed the government to ban films deemed contrary to national security from being screened.
The local film authorities told HKFP in November last year that a total of three films had been banned since 2021. Analysis by HKFP at the time revealed that at least 14 films had trouble applying for screening approval in that period.
Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers, led to hundreds of convictions amid new legal precedents, whilst dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs, despite an overall rise in crime.
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