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A record 25 Hong Kong films are featured at this year's New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF), sponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York (HKETONY) in June and July, under "Hong Kong Cinema Now and Beyond" and "The Jackie Chan Retrospective", giving prominence to Hong Kong's films and talents.
An impressive and diverse line-up of talents from the Hong Kong film industry will also attend the festival at Lincoln Center for the programme "Hong Kong Cinema Now and Beyond" from June 28 to July 11 (New York time), ranging from directors, screenwriters, actresses to Cantopop artistes. They include directors Herman Yau, Andrew Lau and Yan Yan Mak; screenwriter Erica Li, actress Dada Chan, and Cantopop groups Grasshopper and Softhard.
Hong Kong and international film icon Jackie Chan visited New York on June 10 and 11 to accept the NYAFF Star Asia Achievement Award and attend a few film and media events to kick off a retrospective of his films from June 23 to 27.
Speaking at a press conference on June 27 to welcome Hong Kong director Herman Yau and screenwriter Erica Li, the Director of HKETONY Miss Anita Chan, said, "Our office is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year so we are very pleased to be supporting the NYAFF with this impressive lineup of films and talents from Hong Kong coming to New York."
She said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has been actively supporting the film industry and has injected US$39 million into the Film Development Fund to support projects conducive to the long-term development of the film industry. It has also launched a First Feature Film Initiative to support those filmmakers with no prior experience in directing commercial films to implement their first commercial feature film project.
On the NYAFF Hong Kong film series from June 28, she said many of the Hong Kong films totalling 11 will be having their premieres either in the world, in North America or in New York.
Kicking off the NYAFF's Opening Night Presentation on June 28 is the world premiere of Hong Kong horror omnibus "Tales from the Dark Part 1", which comprises three segments directed by Fruit Chan, Lee Chi-ngai and actor Simon Yam in his directorial debut. Also making its world premiere at this year's festival is "Hardcore Comedy".
Hong Kong movies making its North American premiere include "Ip Man: The Final Fight" and "The Last Tycoon" while "Cold War" and "Drug War" will be making their New York debut.
Another highlight at this year's NYAFF is the special gala presentation of the director's cut of Yan Yan Mak's "The Great War", which is making its world premiere. The documentary is about the concert battle between legendary Cantopop bands Grasshopper and Softhard.
Other Hong Kong films are "The Bullet Vanishes", "The Legend is Born - Ip Man", "Young & Dangerous" and "Young & Dangerous 2".
During the earlier "The Jackie Chan Retrospective", a total of 14 films were screened, forming the largest retrospective of Chan's films ever held in North America. The list of films screened at Lincoln Centre was "Chinese Zodiac", "Armour of God", "Armour of God 2: Operation Condor", "City Hunter", "Drunken Master 2", "Little Big Soldier", "Miracles (Mr. Canton & Lady Rose)", "Police Story", "Police Story 2", "Police Story 3: Supercop", "Project A", "Project A 2", "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" and "The Young Master".
Ends/Friday, June 28, 2013
Issued at HKT 09:04
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