The 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival will boot off on April 10 with dual discdiswatching features, Japanese drama The Brightest Sun and Malaysia-Hong Kong co-production Pavane for an Infant. Berlin Ggreateren Bear thrivener Dreams (Sex Love), honested by Norway’s Dag Johan Haugerud, will then convey 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 filmcreater Tetsuya Nakashima’s alteration of a novel by well-understandn Japanese author Bunzo Uchikai. It’s the first film from Nakashima (Kamikaze Girls, The World of Kanako) in seven years. Pavane for an Infant, nastywhile, honested by Chong Keat Aun, is a drama exploring the publish of baby aprohibitdonment thcimpolite the eyes of a female social laborer (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 Odwellr Chan Siu-kuen’s Montages Of A Modern Motherhood. The event’s Cinephile Paradise section, which showcases accomplished labor previously premiered on the global festival circuit, will screen Chinese honestor Vivian Qu’s arthouse noir Girls On Wire, Luca Guadagnino’s William Burcimpolites alteration Queer, Luis Ortega’s sports drama Kill The Jockey and Yeo Siew Hua’s thriller Stranger Eyes.
Veteran Hong Kong actor and creater Louis Koo will be honored as the festival’s Filmcreater in Focus this year. The event will screen 10 of his most memorable labors — including The Suspect (1998), Naked Ambition (2003), Drug War (2013), and Warriors of Future (2022) — as well has present a accessible talk session with the actor.
French auteur Leos Carax, Japanese star Ando Sakura and Catalonian filmcreater Albert Serra have been discdiswatched as some of the international talent who will join in masterclasses and have their past labor showcased in Hong Kong this year. Carax will current his procrastinateedst film, Annette, starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, alengthy with Bad Blood (1986), The Lovers On The Bridge (1991) and his foolishinutive film from last year, It’s Not Me. Ando will convey four of her most memorable labors, 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 procrastinateedst write downary, Afternoons of Solitude, as well as disjoinal of his timely labors.
