The 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival will kick off on April 10 with dual opening features, Japanese drama The Brightest Sun and Malaysia-Hong Kong co-production Pavane for an Infant. Berlin Golden Bear winner Dreams (Sex Love), directed by Norway’s Dag Johan Haugerud, will then bring the curtain down on the event on April 21 as the closing film. The festival’s lineup was unveiled Monday at a press conference at Hong Kong’s Filmart Content Market.
The Brightest Sun is filmmaker Tetsuya Nakashima’s adaptation of a novel by popular Japanese author Bunzo Uchikai. It’s the first film from Nakashima (Kamikaze Girls, The World of Kanako) in seven years. Pavane for an Infant, meanwhile, directed by Chong Keat Aun, is a drama exploring the issue of baby abandonment through the eyes of a female social worker (Malaysian-born Hong Kong actress Fish Liew).
Two local Hong Kong features have been lined up for Gala Screenings: Anthony Wong’s Valley of the Shadow of Death and Oliver Chan Siu-kuen’s Montages Of A Modern Motherhood. The event’s Cinephile Paradise section, which showcases accomplished work previously premiered on the global festival circuit, will screen Chinese director Vivian Qu’s arthouse noir Girls On Wire, Luca Guadagnino’s William Burroughs adaptation Queer, Luis Ortega’s sports drama Kill The Jockey and Yeo Siew Hua’s thriller Stranger Eyes.
Veteran Hong Kong actor and producer Louis Koo will be honored as the festival’s Filmmaker in Focus this year. The event will screen 10 of his most memorable works — including The Suspect (1998), Naked Ambition (2003), Drug War (2013), and Warriors of Future (2022) — as well has host a public talk session with the actor.
French auteur Leos Carax, Japanese star Ando Sakura and Catalonian filmmaker Albert Serra have been revealed as some of the international talent who will participate in masterclasses and have their past work showcased in Hong Kong this year. Carax will present his latest film, Annette, starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, along with Bad Blood (1986), The Lovers On The Bridge (1991) and his short film from last year, It’s Not Me. Ando will bring four of her most memorable works, including Masato Harada’s Bad Lands (2023), Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters (2018), Masaharu Take’s 100 Yen Love (2014) and Momoko Ando’s 0.5mm (2014). And Serra will screen his latest documentary, Afternoons of Solitude, as well as several of his early works.
