Asian Film Festival in Barcelona

The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Brussels (HKETO, Brussels) is supporting the participation of Hong Kong films in the Asian Film Festival Barcelona 2021, held from 27 October to 7 November 2021.

With the support of Create Hong Kong, 10 films from the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society's Hong Kong New Talents Film Programme formed a special section of the Festival, putting a new generation of Hong Kong filmmakers in the spotlight.

The Hong Kong New Talents film programme is on a world tour to reach international audiences. The Asian Film Festival Barcelona 2021 is the travelling programme's fourth stop after at the 23rd Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, Chicago's Asian Pop-Up Cinema, and the London East Asia Film Festival.

Derek Tsang's award-winning Better Days was selected as the closing film of the Festival. The other films screened in-theatre were Jun Li's Drifting, Chan Kin-long's Hand Rolled Cigarette, Erica Li's Just 1 Day, Man Lim-chung's Keep Rolling, Anselm Chan's Ready O/R Knot, Ricky Ko's Time and Jimmy Wan's Zero to Hero. Two other films, Chiu Sin-hang's One Second Champion and Kit Hung's Stoma were available for streaming.

At the networking dinner hosted for Spanish film distributors, cinema directors and festival jury members on 4 November, Miss Grace Li, Deputy Representative of HKETO, Brussels, highlighted that Hong Kong had long been a meeting point for Chinese and Western cultures where local and foreign talents, including many filmmakers, had been inspired to produce fine work. She added that Hong Kong had developed into a major arts hub, becoming the second largest art trading centre in the world in 2020. Hong Kong was keen to attract more professionals from around the world, providing immigration facilitation for categories included in its Talent List.

The Festival is celebrating its ninth anniversary this year. Around 100 films from over 25 countries and regions produced are shown during the Festival.