The Hong Kong International Film and TV Market (Filmart 2013) organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, which began on March 18, wrapped up with record exhibitor/buyer totals on March 21. This year witnessed healthy participation from 710 exhibitors from more than 30 countries and regions, up 10 per cent over last year. Over 6,300 buyers, also up about 10 per cent, took part in the four-day event. Emerging markets posted notable increases in buyer numbers, led by Russia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and India.
The Indian contingent included companies like Shree International, Surya Bharati Export House, Narendra Hirawat & Co, Madhu Entertainment & Media Ltd, Ultra Rays 3D Technology Pvt Ltd and Ultra Distributors Pvt Ltd from the Indian Council Of Impex For Films And TV Programmers and Eros International. In addition, visiting delegations comprised the Film Federation of India led by Supran Sen and 15 other companies, besides the Telangana Film Chamber of Commerce led by Manik Patel.
Filmart is one of the major events of the Entertainment Expo Hong Kong, which also features programmes such as the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) (March 17-April 2), the Asian Film Awards (AFA), held on March 18, the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) (March 18-20) and the Asian VFX and Digital Cinema Summit (DCS) on March 19.
Some of the highlights of the Filmart were:
Filmart featured a series of conferences examining Chinese-language films, book-to-screen projects, Asian film industry opportunities and mobile and social games. In one of the sessions, experts discussed the travails of adapting bestsellers to celluloid.
Not just in India, but across the world, many of today’s box-office hits and failures are adapted from bestselling books, comics and graphic novels. The challenge of film adaptation in the entertainment industry was among the topics explored at the conference, Opportunities In Asia: Book-to-Screen Projects in Today’s Box-Office Hits, on March 19.
Indian author Chetan Bhagat, presented an Indian perspective. “A story must have soul. The film industry requires some people who don’t care so much about money to make films because the concept is good. Until we do that, something will be lost,” was his sentiment as he concluded the session.
HAF Awards
The 11th Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), a three-day event connecting filmmakers with financiers, distributors and producers, had two new awards this year – the ARRI Awards and the Catapooolt Awards, a first for an Indian company. The latter were presented by Indian crowd-funding company Catapooolt, which handed out three Seed Funding Awards worth a total US $ 3,000.
7th Asian Film Awards
India had a strong presence at the 7th Asian Film Awards, which was held on March 18. Despite the several nominations, hardly anyone from the Indian film industry showed up for the event. Indian music director Pritam won the award for Best Composer for the film Barfi! but the award was accepted by Rucha Pathak, one of the Creative Heads atDisney UTV, producers of the film. Among the other Indian nominations, Gangs Of Wasseypur I and II bagged the largest number of nominations – Best Film, Best Director (Anurag Kashyap), Best Cinematographer (Rajeev Ravi) and Best Production Design (Wasiq Khan). Nawazuddin Siddiqui won the Best Supporting Actor award for his role in Talaash and Anand Gandhi was named Best Screenwriter for his film Ship Of Theseus.
