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Film Development Fund enhancement measures attract financing applications
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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Film Development Council:

     The local premiere of the film "Love Lifting" will be staged this evening (March 15). This is the 12th film financed by the Film Development Fund (FDF) to be screened in Hong Kong. The estimated production budget for the film was $10.83 million, and the amount of government finance was $2.7 million.

     Written and directed by Mr Herman Yau, the film features an inspiring story about the romance between a frustrated, divorced businessman and a female weight lifter who retired because of illness. Mr Yau has directed over 50 films, among which "The Untold Story" and the "Troublesome Night" series were very popular in the 1990s. His recent productions cover a wide range of genres, including thrillers, crime stories, comedies, social ethics and triad films. This is the first time he has produced a new genre film with government finance.

     The Secretary-General of the FDC, Mr Wellington Fung, who will attend the premiere, said, "The film is one of the productions applying for finance from the enhanced FDF financing scheme. The enhancement measures were introduced at end March 2010 and there were 28 applications in the past 23 months. The surge is obvious as compared with five applications received during the 12-month period preceding implementation of the enhancement measures. It shows that the measures have been effective in attracting more financing applications.

     "One of the enhancement measures is raising the ceiling of the production budget of an applicant film project to $15 million, which gives filmmakers more room for creativity, such as employing famous directors or actors and adding more visual effects, to make the films more appealing," Mr Fung added.

     Since the Government injected $300 million into the FDF and expanded its scope to finance small-to-medium budget film productions in October 2007, the financing scheme has approved 21 applications involving a total funding of $54.74 million.

Ends/Thursday, March 15, 2012
Issued at HKT 15:01

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