The 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF45) today announces a glittering line-up of jury members for its four Firebird Awards competition sections, including three past winners.
Renowned for identifying and recognising new talents in young cinema, documentary, and short film, four independent jury panels will select 12 winners from 43 films for this year's Firebird Awards competition. HKIFF45 will announce the results online on 11 April, the penultimate day of the festival.
The Young Cinema Competition for Chinese language films has heightened the profiles of some of Asia's emerging talents since its introduction two years ago. Adjudicating this year's selection are YU Lik-wai, director, award-winning cinematographer, and a long term collaborator of JIA Zhangke; acclaimed Hong Kong art director, costume designer and film editor William CHANG; and La Frances HUI, film curator with New York's Museum of Modern Art.
Three distinguished industry professionals from three continents will make up the Young Cinema Competition for World Cinema jury panel. Joining rising Mosotho filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah MOSESE, whose “This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection” won last year's Firebird Award for Young World Cinema and FIPRESCI Prize, are Festival des 3 Continents artistic director Jérôme BARON, and veteran Hong Kong curator and film critic, Winnie FU.
Emmy Award-winning documentarian Luke LORENTZEN, whose Midnight Family won over 35 international awards, including the Firebird Award for Best Documentary, returns as a Documentary Competition jury member. He will join two other veterans, Singapore International Film Festival artistic director KUO Ming-Jung, and Pan Chin-pang LEI, assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Macau, to identify two outstanding documentaries this year.
Tasked with selecting two notable works out of 19 contestants in the Short Film Competition are three illustrious jury members: NISHIKAWA Tomonari, a Japanese filmmaker and artist whose short film, “Ten Mornings Ten Evenings and One Horizon”, was a past winner of the Firebird Jury Prize; German film director and Hamburg Short Film Festival artistic director Maike Mia HÖHNE; and LEUNG Ming-kai, a Hong Kong cinematographer and filmmaker whose debut feature, “Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down” won Best Screenplay and Film of Merit at the 2021 Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards.
The Firebird Awards Competition is part of HKIFF45, which is going hybrid for the first time in the festival's history, featuring in-theatre and online screenings from 1 to 12 April. For details, please visit www.hkiff.org.hk.
