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Taking place over March 24th to 27th, the Hong Kong International Film & Television Market (FilMart) was once again buzzing with the latest Asian tentpoles as sellers, buyers and agencies littered the market floor. Taking place along with the Hong Kong Asian Film Financing Forum (HAF) and held concurrently with the Asian Film Awards (AFAs) and the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), HK FilMart is a large, annual event that features many visitors from all sectors of the film field.

 

Led by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), Korean cinema, as usual, had a large presence at the event, with umpteen companies representing the country and some particularly visible projects catching buyers’ eyes.

 

As in previous years, KOFIC operated an umbrella stand near the center of the market floor, allowing for various visual effects companies, festivals, project markets and film commissions to have a presence at the market. Among the prominent VFX companies under the KOFIC stand this year were Dexter Studios, which had an animatronic gorilla head from last year’s Mr. Go for visitors to play with, and Macrograph.

 

KOFIC’s PARK Jin-hae, the Manager for Festival and Markets (Asia & North America), mentioned that six more Korean companies were present at FilMart this year. Though fielding a great deal of questions relating to all aspects of the Korean film industry, PARK revealed that “one of the major questions I was asked this year was about our location incentive program.” Seoul is currently being used as a major filming location in the upcoming blockbuster Avengers: Age of Ultron, a project which availed of KOFIC’s incentive.

 

However, a lot of questions she received were also inquiries about the major Korean sales companies, which PARK explained “were so busy this year they would barely have time to get lunch.” Major sellers included CJ Entertainment, Showbox/Mediaplex, Finecut Inc., and Lotte Entertainment.

 

One of the most popular Korean booths this year was Finecut Inc., which boasted an impressive lineup that encompassed both lauded arthouse films such as YEON Sangho’s The Fake and LEE Su-jin’s Han Gong-ju and enticing commercial fare such as Sea Fog, which is being produced by Bong Joon Ho. Along with The Attorney, LEESONG Hee-il’s Night Flight, which screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, Red Family and KIM Ki-duk’s Meobius, all these films announced sales just ahead of FilMart.

 

Manning one of the biggest stands this year was Lotte Entertainment, which, in addition to its recent films Plan Man, Hot Young Bloods, Venus Talk and Monster, featured their upcoming period film The Fatal Encounter front and center. Buyers were given the opportunity to view a 20-minute promotional reel of the HYUN Bin-starring drama. Lotte also featured upcoming period action film Pirates, the late year period epic Memories of the Sword, JANG Jin’s comeback High Heels and the grifter sequel Tazza 2 on its sales slate for the rest of the year.

 

As usual, Showbox/Mediaplex operated a busy booth as they delighted buyers with an extended clip/trailer of their upcoming period action film Kundo: The Age of the Rampant, which stars HA Jung-woo and GANG Dong-won. The outfit also drummed up some interest in their upcoming thriller A Hard Day, due out next month. The Divine Move, an upcoming gambling drama starring JUNG Woo-sung, was also on show.

 

CJ Entertainment may not have drawn quite the same interest it did when its stand was shopping Snowpiercer last year, but it nevertheless drew plenty of attention for its wide slate of films, which includes next month’s The Target, their current drama Thread of Lies and their summer tentpole Roaring Currents, a period naval warfare drama with CHOI Min-sik from director KIM Han-min.

 

Other companies present at FilMart with interesting projects included M-Line, which is handling international sales on the North Korean refugee drama Apostle, which was recently screened at the United Nations, and the upcoming Mourning Grave, a summer horror release that will mark the feature length debut of OH In-chun, a promising genre short filmmaker. United Pictures, a joint venture between BK Pictures, Opus Pictures and Zip Cinema, manned a booth and put forth their upcoming genre titles Big Match, starring LEE Jung-jae and SHIN Ha-gyun, and the thriller For the Emperor with LEE Min-ki.

 

Serving as the unofficial end of this year’s HK FilMart was the ceremony for the 8th Asian Film Awards (AFAs), which were held in nearby Macao. Numerous Korean films were nominated at the event, including Snowpiercer, which was recognized in the Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Production Design and Costume Design categories. Also heavily nominated were The Attorney, which had contenders in three acting categories (Best Actor, SONG Kang-ho; Best Newcomer, IM Si-wan; Best Supporting Actress, KIM Young-ae), and Cold Eyes, which was nominated for Best Actress (HAN Hyo-joo), Best Supporting Actor (JUNG Woo-sung) and in technical fields such as Best Cinematography and Best Editor.

 

At the awards themselves, SHIN Min-kyung earned an award for Best Editing for her work on Cold Eyes while JUNG Sung-in picked up the Best Visual Effects prize for Mr. Go. Along with the nominees, many Korean film figures were present at the awards, including JEON Do-yeon, star of Secret Sunshine (2007) and Way Back Home, who served as Korea’s ambassador at the AFAs, and LEE Yong-kwan, the director of the Busan International Film Festival, who was part of the jury panel and organizing committee.

 

In addition to all the activities at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center (HKCEC), where FilMart took place, Korean films were also prominent on the lineup for the 38th HKIFF, which took place across the bay in Kowloon. Night Flight and LEE Yong-seung’s 10 Minutes were among the new features on display, while Bong Joon Ho’s Mother (2009) was screened in a newly released black and white cut. Two new shorts from directors KANG Je-gyu and JUNG Woo-sung also appeared in the HKIFF commissioned omnibuses Beautiful 2014 and Three Charmed Lives, respectively.

 

By Pierce Conran