We present the programme for the 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival which will go hybrid with both-in-theatre and online screenings from April 1st – 12th, 2021.

During the 12-day extravaganza, over 190 titles from 58 countries and regions, of which 10 are world, 11 international and 43 Asian premieres, will be presented in close-to 230 screenings in theatres, and nearly 60 films are available through online platform.

Opening Film
Where the Wind Blows (TBC) by Philip Yung
Septet: The Story of Hong Kong by Sammo Hung, Ann Hui, Patrick Tam, Yuen Wo-ping, Johnnie To, Ringo Lam and Tsui Har

Closing Film
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy – Hamaguchi Ryusuke

Special Presentation
In the Mood for Love by Wong Kar Wai (Restored Classic)

Gala Premiere
Drifting by Jun LI
Time by Ricky Ko

Cinephile Paradise
An Office and a Spy by Roman Polanski
Charlatan by Agnieszka Holland
DAU. Natasha by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, Jekaterina Oertel
Ema by Pablo Larrain
Marghe and Her Mother by Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Martin Eden by Pietro Marcello
Minari by Lee Isaac Chung
Only the Animals by Dominik Moll
Rifkin’s Festival by Woody Allen
The Ties by Daniele Luchetti
Undine by Christian Petzold
Wife of a Spy by Kurosawa Kiyoshi

Firebird Awards

Young Cinema Competition (Chinese Language)
Anima by Cao Jinling
Drifting by Jun Li
Lost by Lotan
Mama by Li Dongmei
Summer Blur by Han Shuai
The Day is Over by Qi Rui
The Story of Southern Islet by Chong Keat-aun
Wuhai by Zhou Ziyang

Young Cinema Competition (World)
Apples by Christos Nikou
Fortuna – The Girl and the Giants by Nicolangelo Gelormini
In Between Dying by Hilal Baydarov
Looking for Venera by Norika Sefa
Memory House by Joao Paulo Miranda Maria
The Edge of Daybreak by Taiki Sakpisit
The Penultimate by Jonas Kaerup Hjort
The Wasteland by Ahmand Bahrami

Documentary Competition
Flee by Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Me and the Cult Leader by Sakahara Atsushi
Mr. Bachmann and His Class by Maria Speth
Radiograph of a Family by Firouzeh Khosrovani
Sabaya by Hogir Hirori
Taming the Garden by Salomé Jashi
The Last Hillbilly by Diane Bouzgarrou, Thomas Jenkoe
This Rain Will Never Stop by Alina Gorlova

Short Film Competition
Blessed Winter by Emetjan Memet
Here, Here by Joanne Cesario
I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face by Sameh Alaa
KKUM by Kim Kang-min
Letter From Your Far-Off Country by Suneil Sanzgiri
Lizard by Akinola Davies Jr.
Loose Fish by Francisco Canton, Pato Martinez
Microcassette – The Smallest Cassette I’ve Ever Seen by Igor Bezinovic, Ivana Pipal
Motorcyclist’s Happiness Won’t Fit Into His Suit by Gabriel Herrera
Night Bus by Joe Hsieh
O Black Hole! By Renee Zhan
Souvenir Souvenir by Bastien Dubois
The Chick by Bijan Aarabi
The Chiken by Sora Neo
The Nightwalk by Adriano Valerio
To Calm the Pig Inside by Joanna Vasquez Arong
Under the Heavens by Gustavo Milan
Vadim on a Walk by Sasha Svirsky
Wuqiao Circus by Lukas Berger

Pan-Chinese Cinema

Filmmaker in Focus – Stanley Kwan
Center State by by Stanley Kwan
Everlasting Regret by Stanley Kwan
First Night Nerves by Stanley Kwan
Full Moon in New York by Stanley Kwan
Hold You Tight by Stanley Kwan
Lan Yu by Stanley Kwan
Love Unto Wastes by Stanley Kwan
Red Rose White Rose by Stanley Kwan
Rouge by Stanley Kwan
Still Love You After All These by Stanley Kwan
The Island Tales by Stanley Kwan
Women by Stanley Kwan
Yang + Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema by Stanley Kwan

Restored Classics
2046 by Wong Kar Wai
Ah Ying by Allen Fong

Chinese-language Restored Classics
Execution in Autumn by Li Hsing
Fallen Angels by Wong Kar Wai
Floating Life by Clara Law
Happy Together by Wong Kar Wai
In the Mood For Love by Wong Kar Wai
New Year’s Sacrifice by Sang Hu
The Butterfly Murders by Tsui Hark
The Goddess by Wu Yonggang

Masters & Auteurs

The Masters
About Endlessness by Roy Anderson
Adutls in the Room by Costa-Gavras
City Hall by Frederick Wiseman
Der Comrades! By Andrei Konchalovsky
Devil Between the Legs by Arturo Ripstein
Malmkrog by Cristi Puiu
Mindanao by Brillante Mendoza
Notturno by Gianfranco Rosi
The Halt by Lav Diaz
The Tango of the Widower and Its Distorting Mirror by Raúl Ruiz, Valeria Sarmiento

Hara Kazuo Continues to Prove
Minamata Mandala by Hara Kazuo
Reiwa Uprising by Hara Kazuo

Auteurs
Forest – I See You Everywhere by Bence Fliegauf
Gorbachev. Heaven by Vitaly Mansky
Irradiated by Rithy Panh
Social Hygiene Denis Cote
State Funeral by Sergei Loznitsa
Suzanna Andler by Benoit Jacquot
Ulbolsyn by Adilkhan Yerzhanov
Yellow Cat by Adilkhan Yerzhanov

World Cinema

Global Vision
A Leave by Leen Ra-hee
Asia by Ruthy Pribar
Atlantis by Valentyn Vasyanovych
Beasts by Nael Marandin
Beginning by Déa Kulumbegashvili
Brother’s Keeper by Ferit Karahan
Corpus Christi by Jan Komasa
Endless Night by Eloy Enciso Cachafeiro
Ghost Tropic by Bas Devos
Luzzu by Alex Camilleri
Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time by Lili Horvát
Slalom by Charléne Favier
Sole by Carlo Sironi
The Art of Return by Pedro Collantes
The Fever by Maya Da-rin
The Horse Thieves. Roads of Time by Yerlan Nurmukhambetov, Lisa Takeba
The Painted Bird by Václav Marhoul
The Whaler Boy by Philipp Yuryev
Tracing Her Shadow by Pengfei
Verdict by Raymund Ribay Gutierrez
Where is Pinki? by Prithvi Konanur

Iranian New Cinema
180 Rule by Farnoosh Samadi
Careless Crime by Shahram Mokri
District Terminal by Bardia Yadegari, Ehsan Mirhosseini
Hidden by Jafar Panahi
No Choise by Reza Dormishian
Radiography of a Family by Firouzeh Khosrovani
Son-Mother by Mahnaz Mohammadi
The Wasteland by Ahmad Bahrami

Documentaries

Reality Bites
Aznavour by Charles by Charles Aznavour, Marc di Domenico
Collective by Alexander Nanau
Gunda by Viktor Kossakovsky
I Am Not Alone by Garin Hovannisian
Sounds of Taiwan: A Symphony by Bao Yuankai by Tsui Yung-Hui
The Kingmaker by Lauren Greenfield
The Mole Agent by Maite Alberdi
Unfulfilled Dreams by Chu Tien-Wne

Filmmakers and Filmmaking
Andrey Tarkovsky. A Cinema Prayer by Andrey A. Tarkovsky
Hopper / Welles by Orson Wells
Kubrick by Kubrick by Grégory Monro
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound by Midge Costin
Peckinpah Suite by Pedro González Bermúdez
The Most Beautiful Boy in the World by Kristina Lindstrom, Kristian Petri

Kaleidoscope

Fantastic Beats
All the Things We Never Said by Ishii Yuya
Bad Tales by Fabio & Damiano D’Innocenzo
Eternally Younger Than Those Idiots by Yoshino Ryohei
Kajilllionaire by Miranda July
Underdog: Part One by Take Masaharu
Underdog: Part Two by Take Masaharu
We Made a Beautiful Bouquet by Doi Nobuhiro

Animation Unlimited
Flee by Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Luginsky by Haiena
Marona’s Fantastic Tale by Anca Damian
The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks by Andrey Khrzhanovsky

World Animation
A La Mode by Jean Lecointre
I See the Abyss by Karolina Kajetanowicz
Little Hilly by Huang Yun-Hsien, Liao Pei-Yu
Navozande, the Musician by Reza Riahi
The Misstress of Copper Mountain by Dmitry Geller
Three Jumps to Hapiness by Artur Hanaj

World Animation for Adults
Affairs of the Art by Joanna Quinn, Les Mills
Ghosts by Park Jee-young
GNT by Sara Hirner, Rosemary Vasquez-Brown
Just a Guy by Hara Shoko
Little Miss Fate by Joder von Rotz
Tie by Alexandra Ramires

Poetry in Motion
Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus by Dalibor Baric
Come Here by Anocha Suwichakornpong
Fire Will Come by Oliver Laxe
The Last City by Heinz Emigholz

Avant Garde Shorts Programme
Aries by Elian Mikkola
Before the Collapse of Mont Blanc by Jacques Perconte
False Water by Serge Onnen, Sverre Fredriksen
Jatun Llaxta, Noh Kaah by Marcos Arriaga
Lunar Dances by Colectivo Los Ingrávidos
Stones by Michael Heindl
When We Are Nothing Left by Milja Viita

Restored Classics
Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard
Chess of the Wind by Mohammad Reza Aslani
Death of a Bureaucray by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
First Case, Second Case by Abbas Kiarostami
Tih Minh by Louise Feuillade
You Only Live Once by Fritz Lang

Focus

Shochiku Cinema: 100th Anniversary
The Masseurs and a Woman by Hiroshi Shimizu
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum by Kenji Mizoguchi
Twenty-Four Eyes by Keisuke Kinoshita
Equinox Flower by Yasujiro Ozu
Love Affair at Akitsu Spa by Yoshishige Yoshida
Harakiri by Masaki Kobayashi
The Yellow Handkerchief by Yoji Yamada
Vengeance is Mine by Shohei Imamura
Gonza the Spearman by Masahiro Shinoda
Gohatto by Nagasi Oshima

For more information, please visit the official HKIFF website: https://www.hkiff.org.hk