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Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) has presented a special focus, "Wu Xia: Hong Kong's Flying Swordsmen", at this year's festival.
Co-presented with the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, New York (HKETO), the special focus highlighted various notable "wu xia" genre films from Hong Kong for the New York audience.
The NYAFF also paid tribute to legendary Hong Kong film director Tsui Hark, who is notable for bringing the "wu xia" film genre into the 21st century, honouring him with the Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award. The special focus included Mr Tsui's recent award-winning "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame" as well as Mr Tsui's masterpieces "The Blade," "Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain" and "Dragon Inn".
To celebrate this special occasion, the HKETO hosted a reception at the Walter Reade Theatre today (July 11, New York time) in honour of Mr Tsui, who met the 150 guests attending the event.
Speaking at the reception, the Director of HKETO, Miss Anita Chan, said Mr Tsui and other Hong Kong filmmakers and professionals have achieved international recognition and acclaim through the years. "In the last 10 years, Hong Kong movies and film talents have won over 300 international awards at major film festivals," she said.
Recognising that the film industry is a key pillar of Hong Kong's creative industries, Miss Chan said the HKSAR Government has been highly supportive of this vibrant and thriving industry, such as by providing financial support for film productions and projects that are beneficial to the long-term development of the film industry through the Film Development Fund.
"So far, the Fund has committed a total funding of close to HK$46 million, or close to US$6 million, in providing partial financing to 16 film projects, some of which have garnered international awards," said Miss Chan.
Miss Chan also pointed out that Hong Kong offers the ideal East-meets-West platform for collaborations and exchanges between Hong Kong and Hollywood.
"One phenomenon that you may have noticed is the growing number of Hong Kong-Mainland China film co-productions. This is in part due to the free trade arrangement, known as the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, or CEPA for short, between Hong Kong and Mainland China. Last year (2010), seven out of the top 10 domestic box office films on the Mainland were Hong Kong-Mainland co-productions," she said.
The reception was followed by the screening of Tsui Hark's mega-hit "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame".
This year's festival is presenting eight Hong Kong films, including five Hong Kong films under the "Wu Xia: Hong Kong's Flying Swordsmen" special focus: "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame", "The Blade", "Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain", "Dragon Inn" and "Duel to the Death". The remaining Hong Kong films being screened at this year's festival are "Punished," "Shaolin" and "Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky."
Ends/Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Issued at HKT 11:59
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