Bodies At Rest to open Hong Kong Film Festival
BODIES At Rest, a Chineselanguage crime thriller directed by Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2 )has been set as the opening title of the Hong Kong International Film Festival. The festival will close with Francois Ozon’s By The Grace Of God, which recently claimed the grand prize in Berlin.
Between the two events, the festival will unspool 230 titles from 63 countries and regions, of which 64 are world, international and Asian premieres. The festival, under the new leadership of Albert Lee, will run from March 18 to April 1.
Other highlights include gala screenings of: Synonyms, the winner of the Berlinale’s Golden Bear for Best Film; Peter Jackson’s restored footage WWI documentary They Shall Not Grow Old ;and
First Night Nerves, by Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan. Chinese director Lou Ye’s The
Shadow Play will receive a special screening after Lou, Jiang Wen, Tony Leung Ka-fai, actress Yu Nan and film scholar David Bordwell announce the winners of the festival’s Firebird Young Cinema Award. The competitive section has been expanded to include an additional section for Chinese films.
Screenings and talk sessions are set with leading international filmmakers.
They include: Asghar Farhadi, after the screening of Everybody Knows; Lee Chang-dong, after screenings of his restored Peppermint Candy and recent hit Burning; and Jiang Wen, following his Hidden Man. Other filmmakers in attendance include Angela Schanelec, documentarian Vitaly Mansky, and Taiwan-based Tsai Ming-liang.
Retrospectives include a 10-film tribute to action master Sammo Hung, named as HKIFF’s Filmmaker in Focus, and a 10-film panorama celebrating the centenary of Korean cinema.
The festival and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra will present Swire Classic Insights: Michael Nyman 75th Birthday -Beyond The Piano, a concert honouring Michael Nyman, one of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary composers.
Among the international titles making an appearance in the global vision section are Ayka, The Ground Beneath My Feet, Manta Ray ,and Tel Aviv On Fire .—